Masks and faces of violence

INVITED EDITORIAL

Masks and faces of violence

Roberto Gomes

Training analyst, member of Sociedade Psicanalítica de Porto Alegre. Psychiatrist. E-mail: [e-mail].

The theme of violence was present in the origins of psychoanalysis and culminates with the conception of Oedipus complex. Assassination of the father has become the paradigm of the violent act in classical psychoanalysis (here violence occurs within the home environment).

The text in which Freud discusses violence in a broader sense is his "Letter to Einstein" (1933). As an attenuating factor for situations of violence, he stresses the recognition of an identity of interests between groups and the occurrence of emotional bonds (Freud establishes the context of psychoanalysis application to social violence).

If Freud was based on Empedocles to, in 1920, formulate what takes place beyond the pleasure principle and lay the foundations of human conflict about the ambivalence between Eros and Thanatos, and if he also formulated a complex relationship between these ambivalent conflicts and the human social groups in Totem and Taboo and Group Psychology based on Darwin and Le Bon, which formulations do we have today that overcome these basic principles? In my opinion, so far nothing seems to have overcome them.¹

The manifestations about the film Elite Squad and requests to publish identikits in newspapers offering rewards for outlaws, similar to the "Wanted" signs in American Western movies, represent society's feeling toward violence and press us to search for solutions that will actually only have a medium- to long-term effect.

Indeed, both researches addressing modern biological theories of psychoanalysis and conceptions of psychoanalysis applied to social theories have hypotheses verifiable at an uncertain period of time.

In addition, implementation of projects, programs and research on violence faces obstacles that delay demonstration of their efficacy. The recent debate about research of inmates at the former FEBEM, widely advertised by the media, confirms how advances and throwbacks, Eros and Thanatos, truth and lie, are mingled and create confusion in our policies.

It is not only about being pessimistic in relation to a theme - violence - that strongly arouses this feeling, but staring at a reality that tends to blind us, i.e., the fact that we, human beings, are complicated, contradictory and cruel and that it bothers us knowing that this will never change.²

Violence is not a scourge exclusive of modern times. Saramago, in his book The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, reviews the violence committed since the days of yore in the name of God and allegedly civilizing and humanitarian causes. In a dialogue with God, the Preacher warns Jesus of how much death and suffering would result from his victory over the other gods. The following six or seven long pages, in a horrible litany, bring, in alphabetical order, from crucified to skinned, all the violence imaginable today, in addition to others that will only be known in the future.

Coming closer to this century that has just ended, I came across the statistics of deaths in the First and Second World Wars. Adding all the people who died in revolutions, civil wars and absolutist governments in the 20th century, we have a historical record.

This was a century of violence. And horror. And fear. Brecht's Dark Times: "Truly the times I live in are dark! Innocence is madness. A wrinkleless face denotes insensitivity. The man who laughs has simply not yet heard the terrible news."

Renato Janine Ribeiro, a philosopher and professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), correctly interprets this horror relating it to the everyday life of our times. In two papers, "Reason and Sensitivity" and "Speaking the Unspeakable," he manifests his horror and indignation toward the violence against João Hélio [a Brazilian boy killed during a motor vehicle theft], in what he calls a barbarian and violent crime against humanity. He claims there is no difference between the cruelty of these outlaws and that inflicted by the Nazis: "This is writing about horror in its pure state. How to think of the child's suffering?"

Thinking the Nazism among us and within us - this is the most original idea in that article - reports us to articles on the theme published by psychoanalysts: comparison of horror of internal pathological organizations with the mafia or Nazism.

When facing this wasted world full of afflictions typical of depressive position borderline, we should consider the history of attempts to overcome it, without being subject to innocence madness. After all, as Brecht said: "What an age this is, when to speak of trees is almost a crime, because it is a kind of silence about so many misdeeds".

I believe it is worth remembering the history of the Theban god Osiris regarding past times when violence and savagery were prevalent. The condition for Osiris to succeed his father was taking Egyptians away from barbarism. To do so, among other things, it was necessary to suppress cannibalism. Osiris enacted laws obliging men to respect the principles of coexistence, instead of basing their demands and actions on caprices and violence. Persuasion, reason and music were the main instruments of their civilizing mission, which extended throughout the world. Slanderers say that his success should really be attributed to Isis, who offered him l´orge (a plant grown as cereal and used in the production of beads) and du blé (wheat), cereal to make bread flour, such as Saracen black wheat.

Following the same line, Luc Ferry, in a talk at the seminar Boundaries of Thought, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, has recently set relations between welfare, children's education and philosophy. He considers that parents - and here he goes from the public to the private setting - can be considered fulfilled as educators when they manage to pass on to their children three key points. love, because any child is happy without being loved; law, which teaches the boundary toward the other and toward society; and culture, which is the understanding of truth.

After all, can psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts contribute to a transformation of violence? How can we face the potential of truth contained in the relationship between violence and survival of cultures and civilizations? Why do some of them survive and prosper while others disappear or are destroyed?

Some civilizations prosper and are long-lasting because they base their authority on idealistic attitudes of the mind, with prevalence of persuasion and dialogue. Others work for the prevalence of Eros over Thanatos and learn from experience: instead of pretending not to see the severe problems surrounding them, they decide to face them and plan long-term actions, reduce omnipotence and develop mourning for their losses and limitations.

In Brazil, perhaps we could build a national project based on its sportiveness, musicality, hospitality, i.e., on activities guided by a life instinct, and establish a character of identifications based on that.

Can we, psychoanalysts, supposedly pacifists and, therefore, with a constitutional intolerance against violence, present ourselves as a counterpoint to calamity and destruction in this tragic approximation to violence?

According to Hanna Segal,^3,4 in two papers - "Silence is the real crime" and "The mind of the fundamentalist-terrorist: not learning from experience" - we should first look into ourselves and, instead of turning a blind eye to reality, confront our fear and gather our strengths against violence. Secondly, based on our knowledge of deep psychology, we could provide specific contributions against apathy and self-deception present in us and in others.

Particularly, I think that deepening studies on a psychoanalytic psychology of difference may reveal new subsidies about internal triggering factors of violence.

On the other hand, it is worth remembering that the possibility of preventive measures against violence through the implementation of primary prevention mental health cares, based on psychoanalysis concepts and with consequences on violence, has been suggested and discussed in our country.⁵

Despite all we have said, we are subject to the risk of reaching the end with the disquieting feeling of not knowing what to do, neither where to go. We certainly do not want a government of savages, which only generates savages in the people. Even though, it is good to think about Brecht's poem, "On Violence": "The headlong stream is termed violent. But the river bed hemming it in is termed violent by no one."

And if we ask ourselves "Which way should we go?," perhaps we should answer that there is no worst way than that of being narcissistically fixed on a psychic refugee - such as that established between Panchito and Pedro Juan - turning our backs to reality.²

We would take the risk of becoming tolerant toward Parteignossen⁶, who are sculpting feuds to govern them as they wish, where the rule of the game is to search for truth when truth is not wanted, but a political advantage.⁶ And then wait for the benevolent night goddesses to find our trail.

But we have to remember the disquieting image suggested by Freud: in order to have flour, one has to grind the grains in a mill; but the mill can grind so slowly that many people will starve to death before it provides the flour. And then we resume the specific theme of violence and required measures to mitigate it, without using masks of alleged neutrality.

References

• 1. Gomes R. Leituras psicanalíticas sobre a violência. In: 21th Congresso Brasileiro de Psicanálise; 2007 maio; Porto Alegre.
• 2. Gutierrez PJ. O ninho da serpente. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras; 2005.
• 3. Segal H. Silence is the real crime. Int Rev Psycho-Anal. 1987;14:3-12.
• 4. Segal H. The mind of the fundamentalist-terrorist: not learning from experience: Hiroshima, The Gulf War and 11 September. In: News & Events. Annual Issue 2003, The Institute of Psychoanalysis, BPS, London.
• 5. Busnello E, Machado SP. É possível prevenção primária dos transtornos mentais? Rev Med ATM. 1974;9(1):401-6.
• 6. Littell J. As benevolentes. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva; 2007.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  01 Dec 2008
• Date of issue
  Apr 2008