Mass violence wrecks psyche of the nation

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): This month's edition of Scientific American magazine contains an article by Richard F. Mollica describing the social effects of mass violence.

Mollica, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, identifies two kinds of social effects among survivors; "serious mental illness requiring acute psychiatric care", affecting only a small percentage of survivors, and "low-grade but long-lasting mental health problems", affecting most survivors.

One example of the first kind of effect is "psychiatric incapacitation". Inferring from one of the references in the article this term clearly means the loss of the ability to respond positively to appropriate psychiatric treatments.

Examples of the second kind of effect are "fear of government", the desire to "seek justice/revenge", "physical and mental exhaustion" and "demoralization".

Based on statistics compiled from countries devastated by mass violence -- like Angola and Congo in Africa, Bosnia and Kosovo in Europe, Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia -- Mollica reports that of the general population, fear of government affects 50 percent, the thirst for justice and revenge 60 percent, physical and mental exhaustion 70 percent and demoralization 80 percent.

The composite effect of these mental health problems on the population is exhaustion, despair and mistrustfulness. These kinds of social conditions wreck the social fabric of the society for one generation or longer, making such societies incapable of carrying out economic development that will take them out of their poverty.

This article brought to mind the oft-repeated violence in this society since the reform movement: recurrent mass violence in Jakarta, as well as in Situbondo, Banyuwangi and Malang in East Java, Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, Banjarmasin and Sambas in Kalimantan, and of the year-long violence in Aceh and Ambon. And certainly the recent outbreak of violence in Poso, Central Sulawesi, which continues until today.

What would happen in these areas in the future? What would happen in these societies after the violence was finally ended and peace restored, if 80 percent of the population were demoralized, 60 percent fervently sought justice and revenge and 50 percent suffered from a constant fear of government?

The urgent need of these societies is humanitarian aid that will tune them into normal social life. Only after they feel that life has become normal again will they be able to take part in productive social activities.

Mollica and his colleagues state that such social rehabilitation can be achieved only through projects that can and will "ease people back to productive work".

Why does mass violence cause social paralysis?

Findings obtained by a Harvard University research team show that there is a connection between mental distress and social dysfunction: inability to work, to take care of one's family and to participate in socially productive activities.

This is primarily because survivors of mass violence generally keep their feelings to themselves, out of fear of being misunderstood.

One survivor of mass violence testified, "the grief of being misunderstood is unbearable".

Typical of this situation are the victims of rape during mass violence in Indonesia. Most victims never openly stated that they were raped. The stigma that goes with public acknowledgement of being raped is undeniably unbearable.

This is why they preferred to suffer silently rather than talk about their traumatic experience, and avoided at all cost reporting the rape to the police or social workers.

One kind of serious mental illness suffered by victims of mass violence is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to Mollica and his colleagues, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture and rape are usually the causes of such mental disorders.

PTSD sources, the researchers say, stem from experiences of witnessing "events involving actual death threats, serious injury or threat to physical integrity", and, subsequently, experiencing "intense fear, helplessness or horror".

The effects of such traumatic disorders can be multigenerational. Children of traumatized families are more prone to mental health problems than children coming from nontraumatized families.

One serious difficulty encountered in efforts to cope with mental-health effects of mass violence is that these effects are invisible. Mollica calls them "the invisible wounds". He mentions further that "shattered minds" are "difficult to detect and to count."

This is probably why the police and the media always report only the physical damage caused by events of mass violence and never mention and enumerate the psychological and social damage.

Typically, such reports list how many people are dead or wounded, how many cars are burned or destroyed, how many buildings are damaged or completely burned down -- and end with estimates of the financial loss suffered by the community.

At best, the reports mention that a number of women were raped in such an incident. As far as I know, no postviolence analysis has ever been made reporting the social and psychological damage caused by such violence.

Media reports of mass violence typically mentioned only that people were terrified and did whatever they could to save their lives. Usually no further accounts are given concerning the fear, the anguish and the frustrations or anger that beset their minds.

One worrying question about the meaning of the above article is in terms of the violence that has plagued our society. How will we ever be able to rehabilitate and revive societies ravaged by mass violence, if we do not even realize that mental health problems caused by these violent acts make these societies lose a great deal of their constructive capacity?

In the end, it is psychological and social rehabilitation that determines whether communities or societies devastated by mass violence will be able to revive after peace and calm are finally restored.

Physical rehabilitation that is not complemented by social and psychological rehabilitation will never lead toward genuine recovery that elicits healthy and productive social life.

But do we pay enough attention to this aspect in thinking about the future of the country's violence-ravaged areas?

Restoring the security of such areas ultimately means restoring the minds of the people, restoring the sanity and civility of the society.

Restoring peace and order means healing the invisible wounds, guiding victims in putting back together pieces of their "shattered minds" and recapturing the productive and creative capacity lost during the upheavals.

Are such agendas included in our thinking for ways to defend territorial integrity, and to preserve Indonesia's nationhood?

So far there are no signs that those responsible for restoring peace and generating reconciliation in our troubled areas are paying attention to this psychological aspect.

Restoring the mental health of a society traumatized by mass violence has thus far never been part of any government program designed to rehabilitate such societies. I would be extremely happy if I were wrong.

An important lesson from Mollica's article is that acts of inciting, supporting and directing domestic violence can never be justified.

No matter what the reason and purpose might be, organizing and enacting mass violence means tearing the nation apart. Whoever is involved in such disastrous schemes is a person without compassion who knowingly or unknowingly is betraying the nation.

People entertaining ideas of achieving political victory through chaos and violence should realize that generating mass violence kills the future of at least one generation.

Isn't this too high a price for a political victory that benefits only a fraction of the old generation, and robs the younger generation of its future?

The writer is a social and cultural observer based in Jakarta.