Today is a day for hope. Those who supported Barack Obama hope that he will bring a small fraction of the change they so desire. Those of us who did not vote for Obama hope that, despite how little we know about what he actually believes, he will prove to be courageous enough to confront the myriad problems we face, wise enough to know the difference between ideological fantasy and complex reality, modest enough to realize he does not know as much as he might wish he knows, and ruthless enough to do what has to be done even when (especially) it disappoints those who support him.
I will be listening carefully to his speech today looking for clues to how he understands the world, since one's world view often determines one's perceptions. A perfect example of how one's world view can distort one's perceptions was linked by Elder of Ziyon last night:
The Huffington Post has an article from a representative of a group called "Conflict Analysis Professionals for Enduring Security"who attempt to place the Israel/PalArab conflict in terms of modern psychobabble.
It is a fairly good example of how people whose only tool is a hammer think that every problem is a nail. In other words, it shows how even experts in psychology can be easy prey for muddled thinking.
Please read the Elder's post since he does an excellent first pass at delineating the psychobabble that the "Conflict Analysis Professionals for Enduring Security" (CAPES) use in lieu of actual cognition. Psychobabble is terribly destructive on several levels. It typically simplifies behavior, removes the locus of responsibility from the individual to some nebulous concept of society, and consistently infantilizes those who it sees as victims. The Huffington Post article exhibits all of these fallacies that in part comprise psychobabble. It is hard to describe how dispiriting it is to read nonsense couched as sophistication by those who claim Psychological sophistication:
Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on your election. We look forward to working with you to heal our country in every way we can.
We are interdisciplinary conflict analysis professionals including psychologists and other social scientists devoted to the study and practice of violence prevention, tension reduction, conflict transformation and reconciliation. Like you, we are deeply concerned for our friends, colleagues, relatives and all citizens of Israel and Gaza. We fear the consequences of this cyclical violence and failure to respond appropriately to the devastating damage. It will require expert intervention to heal wounds and reverse cycles of violence.
You recently said, "If my daughters were living in a house that was being threatened by rocket attacks, I would do whatever it takes to end that situation."
In conflict, it can be difficult to remember that "whatever it takes" includes caring for basic human needs -- food, water, warmth and protection, allaying fears, and providing safety, as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What if "whatever it takes" requires supporting legitimate political goals, addressing just grievances, and allowing life with dignity, self-determination, prosperity and freedom? People prefer to get their needs met by decent means, and resort to violence when thwarted.
Hamas has two central tenets to their religious ideology, killing Jews/destroying Israel and establishing a Caliphate. Even as the ceasefire takes effect, they promise to bring in more and better weapons to use against their enemy. As I posted yesterday, Barry Rubin likens living next door to Hamas as being like Living Next Door to a Serial Killer. I think Barry Rubin understates the problem. A serial killer looks for targets of opportunity. Serial killers choose their victims from among those who are isolated and defenseless with little ability to defend themselves. A victim who fights back is likely to be released as being too much trouble and too risky. If Hamas were simply a serial killer they would never attack Israel a second time. Since they continue to attack Israel despite losing every fight, an alternative explanation is necessary.
Hamas behaves more like a paranoid psychotic serial killer, perhaps the most dangerous of all types of serial killers. The paranoid believes that his victim is the cause of his problems and that his act of murder is justified. He believes in his delusional ideas and acts on those ideas. In Gaza the paranoid psychotic serial killer believes that the Jews have stolen his grandparents' paradise, that the Jews keep him in penury and want, that the Jews are alternately weak and frightened and that the Jews have magical powers; he believes that the Jews desire only to commit genocide against the poor victimized Arab and to steal more of his land.
No amount of reality can ever dissuade the paranoid from his delusions. That Israel gave back the Sinai, withdrew from Southern Lebanon, and more recently pulled all of its citizens out of Gaza makes no difference to the paranoid anti-Semites in Gaza (or among so many on the "Arab Street.") The Arab can believe that they chased Israel out of Gaza at the same time they can believe they cannot fight Israel in a fair fight; they can believe that Israel commits genocide against them even as they explicitly promise and vow to commit genocide against the Jews; they can believe that Israel murders women and children at the same time as they hide behind women and children because they know the presence of women and children inhibits Israel's military attacks. The ability to believe explicitly contradictory things at the same time is a hallmark of the deluded.
I have noted that paranoid delusions often have reparative and compensatory value for the sufferer. The paranoid psychotic also suffers from disordered brain chemistry which can only be treated with medications that attempt to restore a more balanced level of neurotransmitters in the brain. Prior to the invention of anti-psychotic medications, attempts to treat psychosis using talk therapy were the only alternative to ECT (Electroconvulsive shock Therapy.) On rare occasions a patient would learn to use more mature defenses to manage his level of stress and intensity of affect which could predispose to psychotic episodes; more often, psychotic episodes would resolve over time and the patient could return to a modicum of more normal functioning. There was almost no evidence that talk therapy could resolve a psychotic episode. Further, and to the great sorrow and distress of many, misdiagnosing a patient with a psychotic tendency risked therapy precipitating the very episodes it was designed to prevent.
In the hands of poorly trained mental health professionals the danger of precipitating decompensations was so great that most programs ended up avoiding teaching psychotherapy beyond the most superficial supportive therapy. Further, supportive psychotherapy has been, in practice, most often misunderstood as therapy that supports the illusions (and hidden delusions) of the patient so as to avoid challenging the patient's world view. This type of therapy maintains the patient in a position of victimhood, maintains the therapist in the position of well meaning externalized authority, and requires no real change from the patient.
Here is a key point for the "Conflict Analysis Professionals for Enduring Security." Even assuming that they know nothing of Hamas's professed beliefs and ideology and actually believe that Hamas only wants the same things they want, a peaceful place in which to build a society, they would have to admit, were they not blinded by their own ignorance, that Hamas's behavior is expressly maladaptive. Even if all the fault in the Middle East were the result of Israeli intransigence, attacking Israel with rockets would be a most unlikely way to achieve what the "Conflict Professionals" imagine they want. It has been said many times that if the Palestinians lay down their weapons tomorrow, they would have a state the next day while if Israel laid down its weapons, it would be destroyed in short order. Further, since Israeli might is so much greater than the Palestinian military might, attacking Israel with the expectation of actually winning a fight is also delusional. Worse, considering the goals as imagined by the "Conflict Analysis Professionals for Enduring Security," it doesn't work and never will or can work.
Only by ignoring the essential nature of Hamas can a group of mental health professionals imagine that all they want is for their "just grievances' and "their needs" to be met by peaceful means. The most charitable take is that CAPES is a group of well meaning and deeply foolish people.
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