Psychology Article On Terror, Post Traumatic Help

Mind Body Psychology Help

This article was written in response to the world trade centers being destroyed in 2001 in USA. It was to appeared in AHP's newsletter but was never published. Below this psychology article is the sidebar which was published.

The series of events that occurred in USA after this traumatic occurrence reveal many American people reacting instead of finding their own power. The majority of people, governments and religious groups responded in unhealthy, maladaptive ways to this traumatic event. The masses make decisions to attack others and strike out with defensive, violent behaviors instead of feeling secure.

I visited Argentina a year later and experienced first hand the anxiety, fear and terror that existed in the people due to the traumatic events that happened in that country. Cristina Goytia, a psychologist in Argentina and I compared notes about the similarity between how the people in both countries reacted to terror.

"Owning Up to Your Terror"

by Doris Jeanette

The Nazi's didn't want to be bothered with the mess so they built grates to deal with the reality of terror. When the men, women and children were being herded up on platforms into the gas chambers they lost control of all their bodily functions. Then their urination and defecation could easily drop through the grates.

Terror is nothing new. It is already part of our unconscious. We carry it around everyday in our body and nervous system. It is from all the previous horrors our ancestors have experienced or we have directly experienced. Since recorded time man has been violent against men, women and children.

The Divine energy of the Goddess was removed with brutal force. It was perhaps the first terrorist attack that came forth from man's ego. As a result, whenever there is any trauma in the outside world it triggers off our own internal terror that we have stored in our unconscious.

I have seen many of the documentaries about the Holocaust and very few show anyone willing to talk about it or express what they really felt. The last one I saw was "Paragraph 175", which refers to the law that sent the German Homosexual Men to the camps. Most of the gay men shook their heads and didn't want to show their face. One of them said when he came home to mother, she said, "Don't ever mention this again."

This typifies how humans have dealt with terror in the past. A friend of mine, a photographer, lived for a year with an African tribe, which was known for being war like. She told me about a ritual the men had when it became dark. They called it "Killing the Night". The men would stay awake and sit together in a hut and tell stories.

It reminds me of how people today use activities such as watching television to avoid or keep at bay their own terror. We huddle together in light to avoid our own darkness. It is no psychological surprise to discover that terror is exactly the phenomenon that makes us want or need to control others or ourselves.

If we did not have terror in our unconscious we would not have any need be controlling. We would be comfortable letting others do as they please because we would be secure. And we could be our spontaneous, sensuous selves. We would relax and let down our guard, being joyful and playful.

As psychologists, we know that our anxious, neurotic, controlling behaviors are attempts to "bind" our terror and keep it unconscious. To "feel safe" we try to control things, objects or people. This creates an illusion of safety.

Most of us go through the day with our well-crafted illusion of safety in place. As long as we are in control everything is fine and we "think" we are safe. We call these unhealthy behaviors "symptoms."

For example, a man might work too much or have to masturbate in the bathroom once or twice a day. A person might clean too much. Or not clean enough. A woman might not eat enough or drink too much. Or it could be something as simple as reading books or watching television to avoid the inner realities.

But this illusion of safety is exposed when two ordinary planes hit two tall buildings on an ordinary day. Our illusion is shattered. Because the reality is that all of the control in the world does not keep any of us safe. A virus, accident or an irrational act can suddenly turn our world upside down, destroying everything.

This happens equally across the broad to psychologists or clients, criminals or police officers, the rich or the poor. When an airplane becomes a weapon, there is no place to hide. This event brings up to our conscious mind all the things we have been trying to keep at bay.

We are now face to face with all of our unresolved emotional issues. Unless of course we choose to become more controlling and more removed. Unless of course we choose to attack others or self.

The statistics reported today on television from the pollsters say that young women are the most affected by what has happened. I would say the young women are not denying and controlling their inner reality as much as others. They are more in touch with their feelings and willing to admit the truth.

The truth is, within each of our psyches we have a terrorist and a victim. Both of these inner characters are being acted out in our external world. This is the primary source of all our internal and external conflicts.

Neither the terrorists nor the victims represent our real selves. They are learned. One is not born a terrorist; one has to be brainwashed into one. One is not born a victim; one has to be conditioned into one. It is Skinnerian conditioning at its best.

The way to become a terrorist is to shut off your feelings and your heart from your thoughts and your mind. Then begin to think that your way is right and good and another way is wrong and bad. That's all it takes. The entire European male population was psychotic in this manner for a few hundreds years during the Spanish Inquisition.

It is helpful to remember that terrorists are keeping their own terror at bay by trying to control everything in their world. They do not "feel" safe with the free movement of anything. Not the body, the emotions, the mind or the spirit! They need to control everything so they are willing to attack and kill whatever scares them.

Terrorists, psychopaths and unloving people are humans without feelings. They are emotionless. They are not vulnerable and open, expressing their fears, hurt or sorrow. They are hard hearted and cold-blooded. Their bodies can be easily destroyed for their own self-righteous values. This behavior is perfect example of brainwashing. The self and heart have been eliminated and the irrational brain determines their actions. This is a perfect example of what I call "Hitler Energy."

What can we do as psychologists? We can begin to eliminate our own anxieties and face our own terror. It doesn't start with our clients; it starts in our own unconscious. We learned to be victims by experiencing helplessness in the face of an attack. When we were children, we were true victims because we didn't have the power to override our parents' insanity's, judgments and anxieties.

We couldn't just go online and order new, secure parents. But as adults, we can rise above these conditioned responses and move into a position of power. We can give up being either a self-righteous judge or a guilty victim. The way to find our strength and own our power is to feel. To be fully alive, we need to value our body and be open and vulnerable.

Most of the psychologists who are giving advice to the public through the media suggest that people attempt to control their anger, their panic, and their terror rather than face it and own it. Our strength is not in more control; that is the illusion. Our strength is in our terror.

The more we face our terror and meet it as an equal, the braver we become. The more we run from it and avoid it, the stronger hold it has on us. The more we attack the terrorist, the weaker we become. If we can acknowledge our terror and directly experience it, it will move through us, naturally. Terror is a deep truth that will not go away until we face it and resolve it within our own psyche.

As psychologists, we know that we are part of the problem and part of the solution. We have a terrorist inside that is terrorizing us. Our inner terrorists can be owned and tamed. Then we can see the truth underneath these superficial roles that are being acted out in our insane world.

Let yourself completely become the person inside of you who is full of terror. Become the Jew on the grates and feel it all the way through you. Let go of control and let your body tremble and shake. Feel your nerves vibrating. Feel the reality of human terror. It is not new.

If we keep breathing and feeling, facing what is really inside of us, then pretty soon we own the truth. An illusion of safety doesn't help. The truth is a mighty place to stand. Then our bodies relax into Mother Earth's gravity field and she can support our every move.

Standing firmly on the ground does feel good all the way through to the bones. No resistance, no lies, no hidden truths. Instead our cells are humming and our sensuality and playfulness can spontaneously come through us.

We feel so secure that we can now help others embrace their terror. And I am certain that the future will see all of earth's humans playing together safely upon our beautiful planet as we seek richer experiences.

We can transform our Goddess Terror into Goddess Ecstasy.

Sidebar which was published:

Jeanette, Doris. EMDR and Learning Theory, Association of Humanistic Psychology's Perspective, January 2002, 31.

EMDR and Learning Theory

Doris Jeanette, Psy.D.

As humanists we know that any technique is only as good as the person using it. In 1975 I worked directly with Joe Wolpe, MD, Father of Behavior Therapy. He was a kind and gentle sprit who sincerely cared about his clients who of course he called "patients." He used his warm relationship with them to support them in facing and eliminating their irrational beliefs. His relationship manner was as important as his desensitization and he even mentioned this fact in his book.

I also meet B. F. Skinner, who in my opinion, was as close to a Black Box as a human being can get. Skinner's terror must have been very high on the SUD's scale is all I can say. I remember his body and social manner being as rigid as many of the people I worked with in Mental Hospitals. Any technique used by Skinner would make a person more controlled and more rigid.

I share this with you because learning theory can be helpful to us in breaking free from our conditioned responses. Desensitization when applied to the deep profound level of the heart, the body, the soul and the emotions can help return us to wholeness. I personally think learning theory should be taught in the early grades to school children to them stop the insidious and unconscious brainwashing that occurs in families and schools.

EMDR, the newest form of desensitization, can be helpful in breaking up the obsessive, record playing thoughts that are stuck in our brain. These techniques when used in a harmonious manner with people by a warm loving psychologist can be effective in helping people face their terror. I only use them when a person is stuck and cannot move their own breath, emotions and body. And I use them applied all the way to the core, bottom issues and images.