Humiliation Everywhere All at Once!

Power Point Presentation - Deep Dive Meditation on Humiliation through Psychology, History and Culture

Dear Friends,

This presentation was recorded on Monday, February 24, before yesterday’s “shame heard round the world.” Due to synchronicity, the issue of humiliation is now center stage. I wish this to be a teachable moment to raise consciousness about this most dangerous, externally imposed, intolerable psychological experience.

This power point presented to my New View group and some colleagues in peace psychology is an evolution of a shorter version I presented on January 31 on a panel I organized for the 6th International Conference for World Balance in Havana, Cuba, with my colleague Mona Abuhamda and investigative reporter friend Sam Husseini entitled, “Psychological Dimensions of the War on Gaza.” To our surprise, the president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel and colleagues attended and spoke at the same session.

My presentation is on the psychology of humiliation and its role in global violence throughout history. After laying a foundation with many examples as a matter of universal human psychology I apply it to a case study on Israel and Palestine.

Here is my Power Point that I ended up calling “Humiliation Everywhere All at Once.” The presentation is about 54 minutes which is what it took for me to provide a comprehensive understanding of the depth, complexity and range of impacts of humiliation and how it plays out in history and current events.

https://rumble.com/v6pnc3f-psychological-dimensions-of-war-on-gaza-with-diane-perlman.html

I dedicate this presentation to Johan Galtung, friend, mentor, father of peace studies, and co-founder of Transcend International, who died last year on February 17 at 93. At the end I also dedicate to the memory of psychiatrist Dr. Eyad Saraj, friend and founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program who invited me to present at the GCMHP International Conferences on Health and Human RIghts in 1997 and 1999.

My number one intention for my work is in understanding psychology for the purpose of reversing cycles of violence. Much is informed by Galtung’s solutions-oriented work on the Transcend Method and the broader and deeper study of psychology and other social sciences to analyze what the conflict is about, what the parties and need, to address basic human needs, just grievances and to identify legitimate goals and to create a new reality that can bridge legitimate goals of the parties. And then to design strategies, policies, rhetoric capable of reducing tensions, solving problems and transforming conflicts.

Description of “Humiliation Everywhere All at Once.”

As public discourse is so politicized and hysterical, I find it most useful to go beyond right and wrong and right and left to shed light on the underlying psychological dynamics associated with violence and what it means to be human.

A proper analysis and accurate diagnosis are necessary in order to develop strategies capable of reversing cycles of violence and addressing collective trauma. We have a situation of two traumatized peoples engaged in provocative traumatic reenactment and escalating cycles of violence and retaliation.

Major psychological triggers that provoke violence include psychological manipulation of fear, exaggeration of threats, dehumanization and enemy images fueled by propaganda and maintained by censorship, and humiliation. In this video I chose to focus on the significant role of humiliation.

“As a weapon of war and a tactic of torture, the power of humiliation to destroy everyone and everything in its path makes it the nuclear bomb of the emotions.” Evelin Lindner, founder of Dignity and Humiliation Studies

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For perspectives on Johan as well as accurate warnings to prevent violence and failures over decades, here are two panels I organized with Johan in 2013 to address the conflict and violence from a Transcend perspective. Check out Transcend.org to learn about our work.

11/13/2013 Event I organized at Carnegie covered by Washington Report On Middle East Affairs

http://www.wrmea.org/2014-march-april/waging-peace-thinking-outside-the-box.html

WRMEA, March/April 2014, Page 62 Waging Peace : Thinking Outside the Box

Ian Lusitck, Johan Galtung, Diane Perlman, Kevin Avrch

The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) at George Mason University and the Middle East Policy Council co-sponsored a creative dialogue on Nov. 13 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. George Mason visiting scholar Diane Perlman convened an “outside-the-box” discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Ian Lustick, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist and founder of TRANSCEND International.

Prof. Kevin Avruch, the dean of S-CAR, welcomed attendees, noting that for the last 30 years S-CAR has established itself as the pre-eminent institution of higher education in the field of conflict resolution. Training students in this field is vital, he said, as future scholars and diplomats address challenges in the 21st century, both locally and globally.

Professor Lustick outlined some of the points he made in “Two-State Illusion,” an article recently published by The New York Times. Describing the “peace process” as a merry-go-round to nowhere, he said negotiations are a phony creation of the “peace process” industry, including Middle East consultants, pundits, academics and journalists. Diplomacy under the two-state banner is no longer a path to a solution but an obstacle itself, Lustick charged.

Supporters keep saying that when all the stars are aligned, Israelis and Palestinians will finally be able to make peace, Lustick continued. Negotiations are “like throwing dice over and over—eventually you’ll throw snake eyes.” But Israeli settlers don’t allow their government to throw the dice, Lustick said, adding that Israel can never be a stable country as long as it has settlers. Lustick urged peacemakers to think of the end product they want and plan a route for how to get there.

Agreeing with Lustick, Professor Galtung, the founder of peace and conflict studies, urged people to start with a solution and then hold dialogues with both sides, maybe by Skyping with each other, to decide how to get there. “How does the Middle East look where you would like to live?” Galtung asked. “Start with the future and work backwards. If you look at the present and the past it looks hopeless,” he added.

“The two-state solution is a non-starter,” Professor Galtung stated. “It will be manipulated by Israel on Day One.” Instead, think of a land where you can have breakfast in Tiberias, lunch in Jerusalem and enjoy the nightlife in Aqaba. Then think about how to get there, he concluded. —Delinda C. Hanley

12/03/2013 I organized this event, Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum at Johns Hopkins SAIS Shifting U.S. Foreign Policy from a ‘Victory Orientation’ to a ‘Solution Orientation' with Johan Galtung, Terry Hopmann, SAIS and Ron Fisher, AU director of International Peace and Conflict Resolution program https://www.sfcg.org/events/johan-galtung-in-conversation/

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For more perspective, people have been raising concerns about the injustice and dangers of occupation for a very long time. This is me around 1990 on a corner in Jerusalem for a weekly Friday afternoon vigil, before Shabbat, organized by Women in Black in cities around Israel holding signs in different languages protesting the occupation. When I showed this slide during my presentation in Cuba, people spontaneously applauded, which surprised me.

The fantasy of “defeating Hamas” is obviously delusional and is having the opposite effect. It is however, possible to make Hamas irrelevant by ending the occupation and addressing just grievances. People whose basic human needs, including dignity, identity, self-determination, freedom and safety are met, are not violent.