Saving Face, Chosen Traumas, and Chosen Glories (response article)

As I write this, the American team just beat North Korea in the first round of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament. North Korean coach Min Kim explained the loss by pointing out that several members of his squad had recently been “hospitalized with electrocution” as the result of being hit by lightning, but they still managed a good game.

The American media laughed out loud at this obvious, clumsy attempt to preserve self-esteem in the face of a humiliating loss (Will this effort help the team improve its game, or interfere with its performance?). Yet, more subtle and potentially more malignant forms of this phenomenon are ubiquitous—in each of us as individuals, and on the world stage.

As Dr. Beisel points out, the problem extends beyond issues of denial and self-esteem preservation. He addresses the importance of patterns, “unconsciously willed events that were unconsciously arranged,” and that go on to “hold center stage and… push all contiguous events aside.” His model of traumatic repetition brings to mind Vamik Volkan’s theory of chosen traumas and chosen glories. Volkan defines “chosen trauma” as an event that causes a group to feel victimized and lose self-esteem, leading to an unconscious mythologizing of the event. In the paper, “On Chosen Trauma” posted on Volkan’s website, he explains, “The group draws the mental representations or emotional meanings of the traumatic event into its very identity, and then it passes on the emotional and symbolic meaning from generation to generation.” The chosen trauma is not mourned. “When a new conflict—a war or warlike condition—develops, the current enemy’s mental image becomes contaminated with the image of the enemy in the chosen trauma.”

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Similarly, a “chosen glory” is an event leading to triumph over an enemy. Volkan refers to leaders’ attempts to play out their personal dramas in national and international arenas, and often doing so by referring to chosen traumas and chosen glories in ways that ignite the emotions of the masses. Eventually truth can no longer be found and no longer matters, as new generations behave in ways that are consciously and unconsciously designed to repair humiliations of the past.

This theory explains why, as Dr. Beisel points out, so often “the U.S. is always blameless. The U.S. has preferred to see itself as always a victim. The attacks, sudden and deeply upsetting, are always unforeseen.” Too many of us want to believe the worldview that “they” hate “us” because we’re good, pure and innocent, despite much evidence to the contrary.

I believe that this model of traumatic reenactment is of vital importance and that all of us need to be educated about it, especially the next generation. We must all come to realize that the unconscious compulsion to repeat is aborted, and strength and momentum regained, only through a process of painful insight into our own history, desires and defenses, followed by mourning of losses. This is true for each of us as individuals and for our society as well.

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