Abstract
This article explores why some individuals and communities are able to successfully break cycles of violence and rebuild their lives after experiencing the trauma of genocide. Stressing the need to recognize alternative psychological models of response to trauma, the author outlines the concept of post-traumatic growth as a counterweight to post-traumatic stress disorder. He then analyzes original data from Rwandan genocide survivors in order to investigate the potential for a recovering trauma victim to contribute to the broader goals of societal and ethnic reconciliation.
The aims of life are the best defense against death
– Primo Levi 1
1Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, trans. Raymond Rosenthal (New York : Random House, 1987) 140.
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Notes
- 1.
Ervin Staub, “Reconciliation After Genocide, Mass killing, or Intractable Conflict: Understanding the Roots of Violence, Psychological Recovery, and Steps Toward a General Theory,” Political Psychology 27, no.6 (2006).
- 2.
Derek Summerfield, “A Critique of Seven Assumptions Behind Psychological Trauma Programmes in War-Affected Areas,” Social Science & Medicine 48, no. 10 (1999).
- 3.
Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization (Thousand Oaks California : Sage, 1996).
- 4.
Richard G. Tedeschi, Crystal L. Park and Lawrence G. Calhoun, “Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Issues” in Posttraumatic Growth: Positive Changes in the Aftermath of Crisis, ed. Richard G. Tedeschi, Crystal L. Park and Lawrence G. Calhoun (New Jersey: Erlbaum, 1998).
- 5.
Although traumatization is frequently used to refer to less severe cases as well.
- 6.
Lindi Cassels and Peter Suedfeld, “Salutogenesis and Autobiographical Disclosure Among Holocaust Survivors,” Journal of Positive Psychology 4, no. 4 (2006); George A. Bonanno, “Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events?” American Psychologist 59, no. 1 (2004).
- 7.
Antonious C. G. M Robben and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Violence and Trauma” in Cultures Under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma ed. Antonious C. G. M. Robben and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Summerfield, “Critique of Seven Assumptions.”
- 8.
Deogratias Bagilishya , “Mourning and Recovery from Trauma: In Rwanda , Tears Flow Within,” Transcultural Psychiatry 37, no. 3 (2000).
- 9.
Yolanda Gampel , “Reflections on the Prevalence of the Uncanny in Social Violence,” in Cultures Under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma, ed. Antonious C. G. M Robben and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco (Cambridge England : Cambridge University Press, 2000).
- 10.
Aaron Antonovsky, “The Salutogenic Perspective: Toward a New View of Health and Illness,” Advances 4, no. 1 (1987).
- 11.
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, “Assumptive Worlds and the Stress of Traumatic Events: Applications of the Schema Construct,” Social Cognition 7, no. 2 (1989).
- 12.
Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide (Ithica: Cornell University Press, 2006).
- 13.
The impact of pejorative characterization of “out-groups” is analyzed in Yehuda Bauer, Chapter 7, Section 7.2 (above) and Irwin Cotler, Chapter 9, Section 9.4 (above).
- 14.
Andreas Wimmer, “The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory” American Journal of Sociology 113, no. 4 (2008); Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); Christopher Taylor , Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (Birmingham: Berg Publishers, 1999).
- 15.
Straus, Order of Genocide.
- 16.
Filip Reyntjens, “Rwanda Ten Years On: From Genocide to Dictatorship,” African Affairs 103 (2004); Alana E. Tiemessen, “After Arusha : Gacaca Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda,” African Studies Quarterly 8, no. 1 (2004).
- 17.
Bonanno, “Loss, Trauma and Human Resilience.”
- 18.
Peter Suedfeld, “Reactions to Societal Trauma: Distress and/or Eustress,” Political Psychology 18, no. 4 (1997); Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, “Special Issue: Editorial Note,” Traumatology, 11, no. 4 (2005).
- 19.
Bagilishya , “Mourning and Recovery.”
- 20.
Examples of the persistence of conflict in Rwanda as evidenced by reports of human rights abuses in prisons are discussed in Francis M. Deng, Chapter 4, Section 4.2 (above).
- 21.
Human Rights Watch , Killings in Eastern Rwanda (New York : Human Rights Watch, 2007).
- 22.
Johan Galtung, “Cultural Violence,” Journal of Peace Research 27, no. 3 (1990).
- 23.
Robben and Suarez-Orozco, “Interdisciplinary Perspectives.”; Vamik D. Volkan, Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism (Colorado: Westview Books, 1998); Mahmoud Mamdani , When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001).
- 24.
The notion that maintaining ethnic identities can only turn victims into killers is addressed in Douglas Greenberg, Chapter 5 (above).
- 25.
Wimmer, “Making and Unmaking.”
- 26.
Musharraf Sherif, “Superordinate Goals in the Reduction of Intergroup Conflict,” The American Journal of Sociology 63, no. 4 (1958).
- 27.
Staub, “Reconciliation After Genocide.”
- 28.
Phuong N. Pham, Harvey M. Weinstein and Timothy Longman, “Trauma and PTSD Symptoms in Rwanda : Implications for Attitudes Toward Justice and Reconciliation,” Journal of the American Medical Association 292, no. 5 (2004).
- 29.
Antonovsky, “Salutogenic Perspective.”; Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, “The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the Positive Legacy of Trauma,” Journal of Traumatic Stress 9, no. 3 (1996).
- 30.
Steve Powell and others, “Posttraumatic Growth After War: A Study with Former Refugees and Displaced People in Sarajevo,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 59, no. 1 (2003).
- 31.
Antonovksy, “Salutogenic Perspective.”
- 32.
Bonanno, “Loss, Trauma and Human Resilience.”; Suedfeld, “Reactions to Societal Trauma.”; Tedeschi and Calhoun, “Special Issue.”
- 33.
Peter Suedfeld, “Cognitive Managers and Their Critics,” Political Psychology 13, no. 3 (1992).
- 34.
Nancy Peddle and others, “Trauma, Loss, and Resilience in Africa : A Psychosocial Community Based Approach to Culturally Sensitive Healing,” in Honoring Differences: Cultural Issues in the Treatment of Trauma and Loss, ed. Katherine Nader, Nancy Dubrow and B. H. Stamm (New Jersey: Brunner/Mazel, 1999).
- 35.
Sousan Abadian, “Cultural Healing: When Cultural Renewal is Reparative and When it is Toxic,” Pimatisiwin, A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 1, no. 2 (2006).
- 36.
Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means.
- 37.
Staub, “Reconciliation After Genocide.”
- 38.
Kenneth I. Pargament, Kaushik M. Desai and Kelly M. McConnell, “Spirituality: A Pathway to Posttraumatic Growth or Decline,” in Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth: Research & Practice, ed. Lawrence. G. Calhoun and Richard. G. Tedeschi (New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2006); Sherry A. Falsetti, Patricia A. Resick and Joanne L. Davis , “Changes in Religious Beliefs Following Trauma,” Journal of Traumatic Stress 16, no. 5 (2003).
- 39.
Mamdani , When Victims Become Killers.
- 40.
Volkan, Bloodlines.
- 41.
Jeff Greenberg and others, “Evidence for Terror Management Theory: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, no. 2 (1990).
- 42.
Abadian, “Cultural Healing.”
- 43.
Gampel , “Reflections.”
- 44.
Straus, Order of Genocide.
- 45.
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, (New York : Penguin, 1963); Staub, Roots of Evil.
- 46.
The concept of a potential bystander responsibility is discussed in Frédéric Mégret, Chapter 13, Section 13.3.3 (above).
- 47.
Jean Paul Lederach, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995).
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Gordon and Penny Echenberg for their support and dedication to preventing genocide, as well as the coordinators and facilitators of the Young Leaders Forum at the Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide. I would also like to thank Dr. Peter Suedfeld for his support and guidance with this research as well as Lama Mugabo, Lindi Cassels and Sigfried Musangwa for their assistance at the research stage. I am also grateful for the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting this project.
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Arnold, J. (2011). A Psychological Investigation of Individual and Social Transformations in Post-Genocide Rwanda. In: Provost, R., Akhavan, P. (eds) Confronting Genocide. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9840-5_19
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