Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective Responsibility offers a unique layperson’s introduction to the scope and causes of violence and trauma theory and suggests ways we can all work to attack these causes. Upon completing this work, you will have a better understanding of the social causes of the violence epidemic and concrete suggestions for its long-term control.
Bearing Witness addresses the cycle of violence by discussing some of the biological, psychological, social, and moral issues that go into determining whether a person will end up as a victim, perpetrator, or bystander to violent events and what happens to us when we are in one or all three of these roles. The authors look at a number of intersecting factors that play interdependent roles in creating a culture that promotes, supports, and even encourages violence. Specifically, you’ll gain invaluable insight into:
A framework for understanding the various aspects of the problem of violence, Bearing Witness delves into the various aspects of trauma—what trauma does to the body, the mind, the emotions, and relationships—before beginning to formulate proposals for initiating processes that lead to problemsolving. Once this knowledge base has been established, the authors give you the beginnings of an outline for reorganizing society with the aim of establishing a community that is responsive to the basic human need for safety and peace.
| Preface | ||
| Introduction | 1 | |
| Statement of Problem: Violence and Community | 1 | |
| Pt. I | A Trauma-Organized Society? | 9 |
| Ch. 1 | Looking at the Numbers | 11 |
| Ch. 2 | Traumatogenic Forces in Society | 17 |
| Childrearing Conditions and Practices | 19 | |
| Disavowal of Emotions and Emotional Numbing | 25 | |
| Sexism | 31 | |
| Gender, Male Conditioning, and Violence | 34 | |
| Injustice: Poverty and Race | 37 | |
| Social Stress | 40 | |
| Existential Confusion and the Problems of Evil | 41 | |
| Ch. 3 | Where Violence Occurs | 49 |
| Violence in the Family | 49 | |
| Violence in the Workplace | 51 | |
| Violence in the School | 56 | |
| Violence in the Church | 59 | |
| Ch. 4 | Active Support for Violence | 67 |
| Firearms | 67 | |
| Substance Abuse | 71 | |
| Pornography | 73 | |
| Media Violence | 78 | |
| Ch. 5 | Our Response to Violence | 85 |
| Crime and Punishment | 85 | |
| Failure to Protect: The Bystander Effect | 87 | |
| Robopathology | 91 | |
| Resiliency: Protective Factors | 94 | |
| Summary: A Trauma-Organized System | 99 | |
| Pt. II | Trauma Theory | 101 |
| Ch. 6 | Normal Reactions to Abnormal Stress | 103 |
| Psychological Trauma Defined | 106 | |
| The Fight-or-Flight Response | 108 | |
| Learned Helplessness | 109 | |
| Loss of "Volume Control" | 111 | |
| Thinking Under Stress - Action Not Thought | 112 | |
| Remembering Under Stress | 114 | |
| Learning and Trauma - State-Dependent Learning | 121 | |
| Emotions and Trauma - Dissociation | 123 | |
| Health and Trauma | 130 | |
| Character Change and Trauma | 133 | |
| Looking for an Antidote | 134 | |
| Attachment Behavior | 134 | |
| Failure of Attachment | 135 | |
| Endorphins and Attachment | 136 | |
| Endorphins and Stress - Addiction to Trauma | 137 | |
| Trauma-Bonding | 139 | |
| Traumatic Reenactment | 141 | |
| Issues of Meaning and Spirituality | 144 | |
| Trauma-Organized Systems | 147 | |
| Changing Patterns of Thought | 151 | |
| Pt. III | A Public Health Approach | 159 |
| Ch. 7 | Tertiary Prevention: Fixing What Is Already Broken | 161 |
| Trauma-Based Principles for Intervention | 161 | |
| Emergency Prescription for the Body Politic | 163 | |
| Healing as Integration | 167 | |
| Establishing Safety | 167 | |
| Forgetting the Past Means Repeating It | 177 | |
| The Grief That Does Not Speak ... | 190 | |
| Reconnection | 194 | |
| Ch. 8 | Secondary Prevention: Containing the Traumatic Infection | 197 |
| A Bill of Rights for Children | 197 | |
| Day Care and Family Support | 200 | |
| Dealing with Family Violence | 202 | |
| Sanctuary in the Classroom | 210 | |
| Making the Workplace Safe | 222 | |
| Health Care Re-Reform and the Cost of Violence | 225 | |
| Prisons and the Criminal Justice System | 230 | |
| Spiritual Support for Nonviolence | 241 | |
| Ch. 9 | Primary Prevention: Ending the Cycles of Violence | 245 |
| Preventing Family Violence | 245 | |
| Promoting Resiliency | 251 | |
| Sharing the Wealth | 254 | |
| Primary Prevention and the Media | 263 | |
| Restitution Not Retribution: Reworking the Justice System | 267 | |
| Dealing with Bullies: Refusing to Be a Victim or a Bystander | 270 | |
| A Community Response to Violence | 273 | |
| Bearing Witness and Human Liberation | 277 | |
| Bibliography | 281 | |
| Index | 319 |
Overview
Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective Responsibility offers a unique layperson’s introduction to the scope and causes of violence and trauma theory and suggests ways we can all work to attack these causes. Upon completing this work, you will have a better understanding of the social causes of the violence epidemic and concrete suggestions for its long-term control.
Bearing Witness addresses the cycle of violence by discussing some of the biological, psychological, social, and...