Socratic Forum closes for the year

The closing meeting of the Bank Windhoek Socratic Forum for the year, annually dedicated to the Namibian celebration of UNESCO World Philosophy Day, takes place on 7 November at nice Restaurant at 18:00. The topic for the meeting is Humiliation as a pathway to violence and will be introduced by Hélène Opperman Lewis, author of the recent publication, Apartheid – Britain’s Bastard Child.

Herewith a photograph and short CV of Hélène, as well as an abstract of her presentation and recommended reading on the topic.

Hélène Opperman Lewis was born and bred in Namibia and for the past 27 years practiced as a counselling psychologist in Cape Town and Swellendam.

While feeling ashamed and guilt-ridden as an Afrikaner in the mid 1990s and after the shocking and devastating South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission revelations, she became determined to understand why Afrikaners created Apartheid in 1948.

Triggered by certain observations among young Afrikaners who were furious about their parents' and grandparents' past decisions, Hélène in 2001 enrolled for a doctoral thesis with the title of “The Development of a Social Conscience amongst Afrikaners” at the then University of Port Elizabeth.

It was while doing research on Kohlberg and Gilligan’s theories on the development of moral reasoning, that she discovered the field of psycho-history as the study of the “psychological why of history in large groups and nations”. What seemed to be a neverending repeat of history became understandable from a psycho-historical perspective portraying this phenomenon as one of “unremitted humiliation followed by trauma that is passed on to future generations in an effort to heal the parents’ fragmented selves”. Also known as “trans-generational trauma”, this phenomenon gets repeated over and over again, as yesterday’s humiliated becomes tomorrow's humiliators and thus maintains a cycle of revenge and conflict. As a universal phenomenon and true for every group, it has become the universal human story.

Having discovered psycho-history through her research, Hélène wrote to Lloyd DeMause, the then president of the Psycho-history Association in New York, who invited her to attend the next annual International Psycho-history convention in New York. After having completed a course in Psychogenics through the institute, she realised there was much more to moral reasoning than engaging in a narrow theoretical spat with the subject.

However, by the end of 2001, she decided to abandon her doctoral studies and to rather research the 300 year history of Afrikaners against a psycho-historical background that, she felt, would enlighten her initial question of social conscience.

Encouraged by American psycho-analyst and psycho-historian, dr. David Lotto, Hélène decided to write a book and share the disastrous historical consequences of humiliation and the loss followed by trans-generational trauma with fellow South Africans.

This decision was in 2001 followed by an article on “Racism as projection: How early childhood can help it take root” in the Rhodes Journalism Review that became important reading at the International Conference on Racism held in Durban in the same year.

In 2002, she was again invited to New York to present papers on the Anglo-Boer War and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the annual Psycho-history convention.

In 2011 and 2012, Hélène attended the annual International Dignity & Humiliation conferences in respectively New York and Oslo, in April 2013 convened the annual International Dignity & Humiliation conference in Stellenbosch and in June 2015 presented a paper on Humiliation & Trauma in Rwanda.

With her research eventually spanning 15 years, Apartheid – Britain’s Bastard Child finally saw the light in late 2016 and completes the journey so far.

Humiliation as a pathway to violence

The field of social neuroscience may help us understand the way in which humiliation leads humans to engage in violent acts. The neuro-psychological pathway shows us how humiliation leads to violence: the sequence is humiliation leading to social pain, to decreased self-awareness, to decreased self-regulation, to increased self-defeating behaviour, and, finally, to violence.

Research suggests that the social pain of humiliation is experienced as intensely as any physical pain, can last throughout one’s life span and be passed on to future generations. This disproves the inaccurate (and dangerous) assumption that “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me”. The more severe the humiliation and trauma, the more likely its victims are to become suspicious of and paranoid about the intentions of others towards them. Once humiliated, there is often a powerful feeling that “the self” will never be repaired, healed or be made whole again unless the injustice is appropriately addressed.

The anger and rage that follows protects us from inner fragmentation, from “going mad” or having a “nervous breakdown”. However, it also tends to foster a desire for vengeance and an attempt to restore dignity. This is why humiliation is often followed by a reversal in which the previously humiliated becomes the next “humiliator”.

Hélène Opperman Lewis’s book, Apartheid – Britain’s Bastard Child, will be for sale at N$330 at the event.

Recommended reading

http://www.humiliationstudies.org/

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zcfd4j9nuvercfe/2016-11-07%2014.12.34%20%281%29.mp4?dl=0

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