This paper seeks to discuss and further explore Susan Brison’s argument on the self and how violence can have an impact on us and change how we see ourselves, interpret our identity, and, in some cases how the self can be so altered as to no longer be the same. Brison explains when the trauma is of human origin and is intentionally inflicted, it not only shatters one’s view of the world, one’s safety in it, but it also severs the sustaining connection between the self and the rest of humanity, destroying the belief that one can be oneself in relation to other people (p. 14). This paper will attempt to explore further the traumatized self. That said, when we are speaking for others there is a concern that in doing so it would be unethical, arrogant, and politically illegitimate (Alcoff, p. 6). Nevertheless, if I spoke from a personal position, would this be anymore ethical with respects to this paper? I would be speaking authentically, but would this be inappropriate? Yes, it would be unethical and inappropriate. It is considered unacceptable to talk personally in a classroom. Then I …show more content…
How do we comment on Brison’s article, as a knower? If knowledge is situated, how do we apply personal knowledge and experiences? Would this negate the truth of knowledge and color and skew the validity of the information? We could apply the principles of Sandra Harding’s strong objectivity and then the experiences and knowledge gained would be valuable and be credible. However, when I considered Alcoff’s (1991-1992) article “The Problem of Speaking for Others,” has raised valid issues and points that stimulate my thoughts and the implications of strong objectivity, about ethics and about ignorance and knowledge seeking, and I am back to the issue, I would not be speaking for others if I was speaking from experience. That said, I asked myself, when would I
Therefore, this case plays on the idea that, when an individual feels his or her life to be in danger, self-defence is accurate. In the case of Ms. Lavallee, both reasonableness and ethics were questioned. Since Ms. Lavallee is a victim of battered woman syndrome, when she pulls the trigger at that life-threatening moment, cannot be understood except in terms of the cumulative effect of months or years of being brutally abused. Overall, this case is an exceptional example of how self-defence comes to play within the criminal justice system. It is important for the law to revaluate cases for a better understanding of the balance of inclination over pain. For instance, although Lavallee was thinking that her life was in danger with action she committed, there is reason and story behind her crime. When the case is viewed from this perspective, it becomes clear that the battered woman’s knowledge of her partner’s violence was so profound that she knows the extent and nature of the violence beforehand, which allowed her to determine that this time it was different, and would probably result in life threatening
... Joyce Dorado. "Who Are We, But For The Stories We Tell: Family Stories And Healing." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy 2.3 (2010): 243-249. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 May 2014.
...eneficial due to the suggestions Simmons gives to teachers, parents and the victims themselves on effective ways to avoid and prevent this abusive behavior from continuing. I would highly recommend this book to girls of all ages, parents, teachers, school faculty or anyone who has contact with girls. Simmons believes we need to teach girls that it is okay to expose their most uncomfortable feelings. There are many dangerous warning signs of girls giving themselves over to someone else’s terms and denying their own feelings which worry Simmons the most. This behavior is dangerous and could lead to victims staying in violent relationships in the future if we do not teach girls early to know how to resist the signs of abuse.
This paper focuses on the Geraldine case (Dominguez, Tefera, Aronson, & NCTSN, 2012). Geraldine’s trauma occurred in the home when her father shot her mother. This paper will focus on my personal reactions to this case, how my reactions effect interactions with the people I am working with and finally self-care strategies. Personal reactions are the things that make us feel or act a certain way that others may or may not see, but we know that something has affected us these can be to good things and bad alike. I might react to winning the lottery by passing out, just the same I might get depressed if a close friend dies. These are reactions to the situations we are presented in life.
How does one person develop into the human that he or she is? Do his or her characteristics depend on the qualities he or she was born with? Or does his or her upbringing mold them into the person he or she becomes? The debate between nature and nurture is one that can be difficult to conclude and thus has been argued for centuries. Sheri S. Tepper explores this issue in her acclaimed novel The Gate to Women’s Country. The narrator of the work, Stavia, lives in a woman-dominated, post-apocalyptic country, where the women’s goal is to breed out the violent and murderous qualities that men are believed to possess. These women have an preconceived ideal people who are “CAPABLE of violence and ruthlessness, but very much in control of their tempers
The idea of “Outliving Oneself” depends on the concepts of trauma and most importantly the self, in a situation where said trauma obliterates the self for an indefinite amount of time. Brison presents the self in three interwoven parts: the embodied self, the self as narrative, and the autonomous self. Any of these parts of self depend largely on the individual’s society, culture, and interactions with other people. The embodied self represents the self in conjunction with the physical body, which our society separates from the self, to intimate a soul or personality, and also assigns genders to certain traits. Trauma dissolves this separation of body and mind because violence brings the traumatized to face their own mortality. They have to see their body as an object because their assailant treats it as an object. Trauma is so damaging because the self cannot exert any power whatsoever; the interaction between the assailant and the victim, essentially a social situation, robs the victim of a voice, because the assailant ignores it, a personality, because it is of no consequence to the assailant, and a self, because the assailant uses the body as an object, and the body plays a more central role in the interaction than the self does. Brison quotes Cathy Winkler in saying a rape is a “social murder,” because the rapist’s part in the interaction defines the victim through their actions that take away the victim’s sense of self. Any control that the victim felt over their body gets taken from them by the rapist. The consequences of this trauma include a loss of control over physiological functions, such as emotion and incapacitation from anxiety; the body and mind are out of balance, which leads the victim to be stigmatized by societ...
In the featured article, “Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy,” the author, Judith Butler, writes about her views on what it means to be considered human in society. Butler describes to us the importance of connecting with others helps us obtain the faculties to feel, and become intimate through our will to become vulnerable. Butler contends that with the power of vulnerability, the rolls pertaining to humanity, grief, and violence, are what allows us to be acknowledged as worthy.
Researchers are still trying to understand domestic violence, what causes it and how far back psychologically does it go. A Scottish psychoanalyst, W. Ronald D. Fairbairn, conducted studies such as these. These studies had a grand influence on British object relations and he founded the ?Object Relations Theory? and the ?Dynamic Structure of the mind? (Stringer). Similarly to Sigmund Freud?s ?id?, Fairbairn has levels of the internal unified ego that will split as a self defense mechanism in relation to the emotional pain a child is feeling (Celani 62). This unconscious strategy is necessary. The internal unified ego is composed of the self-esteem of humans and is divided into three parts ...
In Trauma and Faith, Dr. Eriksson posed a question that caught on something inside of me and I have not been able to shake it since. She asked what we are to do with clients that are the perpetrators of trauma or whose trauma has led them to perpetuate the cycle. That stuck with me since in the field we mostly talk about treating the survivors not the perpetrators. As if divinely planned, a few weeks later I did an intake with a client at my practicum that embodied this very question. A member of a familial gang since birth, the client had experienced horrific trauma from a young age. Throughout his life, he had then inflicted great violence and trauma on those around him. My experience of sitting with this man who was both survivor and perpetrator,
Weisel-Barth, J 2014 ‘Review of “The Stories We Tell”’, International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, Vol.9(2), p.162-166, DOI: 10.1080/15551024.2014.884526
2.1 Demonstrate understanding of the differences in the perception and expression of trauma in relation to intersections of diversity with families and other populations.
Growing up in a society damaged by political harassment can make a person involuntary act in a certain way. When looking at society there should be a mass sum of understanding and experience. This should allow each person to profit the insight and skill of the society. In Marjane situation she doesn’t obey the rules. She’s a confident woman who refused to conform to demand roles expect of her. She discovers that she didn’t have a perfect idolized life growing up. However, those flawed lessons in her life constructed her to be the woman she is today. During her times of difficulty and insecurity she formulates open-mindedness, spiritual enlightenment and feminist qualities. Marjane creates a new, customary identity out of her experiences. Marjane is the person that she wants to be not conformed to be.
The authors Benner and Pennington, speak of the damaging nature of the false self in contrast with the freedom of the true self. The false self is described as the reliance upon the attachments we form, to the things we attribute to making us special or proud of who we are. The reliance on these attributes are likened to the fig leaves that Adam and Eve used for the purpose of hiding behind, out of fear of being ‘seen’. The idea is expressed that we hide, in fear of people seeing the things we have at some point cast out of our lives in shame.
Violence can also create long term effects including include distress, flashbacks, anxiety, inability to concentrate, feelings of unreality, depression, and suicidal ideation. Even where the abuse does not have physical long-term effects or result in PTSD, the survivor of an abusive relationship will often suffer low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness. Survivors commonly comment on feeling somehow ‘different’ to their peers, as though their experiences have in some way set them apart from the rest of society. Due to the controlling aspects of an abusive relationship, the survivors may find it difficult to make personal decisions and easily feel overwhelmed by everyday
Truth of oneself makes it visible when faced with absurd events in life where all ethical issues fade away. One cannot always pinpoint to a specific trait or what the core essence they discover, but it is often described as “finding one’s self”. In religious context, the essential self would be regarded as soul. Whereas, for some there is no such concept as self that exists since they believe that humans are just animals caught in the mechanistic world. However, modern philosophy sheds a positive light and tries to prove the existence of a self. Modern philosophers, Descartes and Hume in particular, draw upon the notion of the transcendental self, thinking self, and the empirical self, self of public life. Hume’s bundle theory serves as a distinction between these two notions here and even when both of these conception in their distinction make valid points, neither of them is more accurate.