Tyranny & Trauma vs. Justice & Healing - with Judith Herman
On facing our situation so we can build a better world
Clarity and truth can be found experientially when we stop trying to control and struggle with existence. This control and struggle doesn’t just play out at the level of the individual, but extends into the interpersonal realm and beyond. In this way, the egoic drive to control acts as a contagion — as some succeed in gaining control over others for their own benefit, a culture in created in which there is pressure on the rest of us to adopt a lowest-common-denominator dynamic of fearful self concern. A horrific fractal of fear, control, tyranny, abuse, denialism, complicity, gaslighting, manipulation, and harm emerges as a result.
This psycho-spiritual dynamic of collective ego, termed Wetiko by the Algonquin people of North America, has spread across the globe over the last half millennium, and is now the dominant dynamic of our world today. The reality of this negative feedback loop of fear and control points to the possibility of its opposite however, a positive feedback loop of connection, care, collaboration, and healing. The first step on the path to making this positive feedback loop a reality is facing ourselves and the reality that has been created, a reality that currently operates according to the rules of tyranny.
This week on the Living Mirrors podcast I spoke with Prof. Judith Herman. Judith is a hugely influential psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, author and a leading expert on the healing of traumatic stress. She is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is the author of many books on PSTD, most recently Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice. A lifelong activist, she brings deep insight and understanding to the societal context in which trauma occurs, from the personal to the political, and these are the themes we discuss today.