How it is possible that atrocities such as the Holocaust, Al-Anfal, or Halabja could ever occur? How is it that innocent civilians can be brutalized by law enforcement? Mass displacements of refugees? The Yazidi genocide in Northern Iraq? The Rohingya genocide in Myanmar?
Is it because some human beings are intrinsically evil?
Many would argue that refugees are nature’s making, no different than natural disasters and not of a man-made catastrophe, such as war. However, throughout history, the majority of atrocities and suffering brought upon humans is at the hands of other humans. So perhaps the opposite of good is not necessarily evil. The opposite of good is our numbness to the pain and suffering we collectively bring upon one another.
Numbness is a term described as “dissociation” by the mental health community. Trauma has the power to undermine our sense of connection to our identity, body, humanity, and life as a whole. At its core, trauma is about losing the deep human-to-human and human-to-nature connection as demonstrated in the words of stress and trauma expert, Dr. Peter Levine: “Trauma is about broken connection. Broken connection to the body, broken connection to our vitality, to reality, and to others.” As a result, the world around us has become restrictive and narrow, limiting our power to relate to other humans and their suffering and develop an appreciation to nature.
According to psychotherapist Resmaa Menakem, during trauma, the perpetrator tries to avoid the trauma of dehumanizing the victim by dissociating during the event, ignoring any impulse to process the trauma or discharge energy from their body.
For too long, we have suffered from symptoms of religious extremism, racial injustice, and human rights violations. When we look deeply at the root cause of all tensions in life, we find it all originates from unprocessed trauma.
Until we appropriately address trauma, we will continue to live in internal and societal chaos ruled by an overactive emotional brain.
