The Middle East: Unfathomable Traumas, Cavernous Fears

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In medicine, we often speak of predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating, and present factors in illness. The same could be said of the conflict in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, which continues to threaten all countries in the region and beyond.

Primary perpetuating psychological factors include unfathomable traumas and cavernous fears. Underneath the "language" of bombs and ground invasion are these and other unresolved emotions and experiences of identity and relationship.

Antidotes to unresolved emotions must include active compassion and shared humanity. The underlying biases of antisemitism and Islamophobia cannot be resolved without shared work towards mutually acceptable goals.

As former CIA officer turned political activist Ray McGovern said recently (to paraphrase), "In a nuclear age, there is no security without mutual security. The golden rule is not just a moral rule, but an existential imperative." And as George Mitchell reportedly said about the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland, he "had 700 days of failure and one day of success." May that one day of success come soon, followed by many more. I along with many others hope we can cultivate peace, love, justice, and mutual growth – not an addiction to war and abusive power.

Unfathomable trauma

Can you imagine negotiating with people who have killed members of your family and community, and who continue to threaten your entire existence and way of life? This is an unimaginable horror, but a reality that both Palestinians and Israelis have to face. Each collective's life really depends on someone still considered an enemy. But war is not, shall we say, an evidence-based treatment for trauma.

Shaima Abu Ludba, displaced From Khan Yunis, said on the NewsHour (through an interpreter): "They said, evacuate, and we evacuated. And every time we're evacuated to the streets, I wish they would eliminate us and end our suffering." Can we even imagine the depth of trauma, loss, and anguish that would cause her to feel this way? Can we avoid compassion for her trauma or the trauma of others affected by the conflict? Is her wail any different than the wail of a mother in Israel mourning her child lost on October 7, 2023?

The antidote for this trauma is active compassion; taking active steps to alleviate suffering, which must include humanitarian aid to provide food, water, shelter, physical and mental health care, and education.

Cavernous fear and insecurity

I thought I understood the fears of Jewish people a year ago, but it took a while for those existential fears to really sink in. This is a people who were discriminated against horribly throughout Western history, who were at-risk minorities in every land they inhabited. They were so discriminated against in the United States that they had to create their own colleges and medical schools just to become professionals serving the greater good. (The same is true of Black and Indigenous peoples, especially regarding colleges.) And of course, they were so hated by the Nazis that 6 million Jews were systematically killed by Adolf Hitler and his regime. The guilt of the West over the Holocaust, and the reality of discrimination in the West is partly what fueled the founding of the state of Israel. The cavernous fears that a whole society that had once provided possibility could turn against Jews is horrifying, and our own society must start with great accountability for antisemitism, and repair of conscious and unconscious biases that fuel hate in all its forms.

But these days, reasoned critique of Israel's policies or even amplification of the suffering of Palestinians has been called antisemitic by Israel's most ardent supporters, who sometimes have attempted to silence and marginalize critique. This indicates defensiveness and entrenchment. I would suggest these supporters have great, unresolved, cavernous fears and uncertainty evoked by this reasoned critique. And as a Palestinian American colleague informed me, "antisemitism is alien to Palestinians. It is a Western merchandise. Our struggle with Israel is with settler colonialism."

At the same time, scholars have noted that Arabs, particularly Palestinians, have been made the ‘bad object’ of the West’s projects of colonialism. Palestinians and Palestinian Americans have understandable and similarly cavernous fears about how they have been and are being treated, and clear evidence of their devaluation and potential erasure.

An antidote for cavernous fears is recognition of shared humanity and vulnerability, as opposed to a flight from vulnerability through force of arms and psychological warfare through silencing, avoidance, devaluation, and contempt. Another antidote would be to disarm combatants to remove the means of erasing a collective while ensuring peace and safety for all. That has to start with a ceasefire and return of hostages and prisoners.

We don't have to let fear turn into an action plan.

Conclusion

No one can eliminate fear, trauma, and vulnerability by thrusting them onto someone else. We can't say, in effect, "I don't want this fear. Here, you have it." We have to transform fear and trauma in a transitional space, not transmit them. (See my four-part series on trauma and healing from last year, in references.)

Trauma Essential Reads

To Tell or Not to Tell: Disclosing Your Painful Past

Healing in Motion

Suffering is a crisis in connection. The opposite of suffering is belonging. Out of this trauma has to come a deeper belonging, over time, or we are relegating entire peoples, and our humanity itself, to further catastrophe and erasure. We would be transmitting deprivation and loss, not resolving them.

We forget ourselves when we think only of ourselves, and we feel forced to think only of ourselves when we are under threat. When the threats diminish, and when we can soothe fears and insecurity, we can return to our humanity and our better angels.

© 2024 Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A.

Source: By Ravi Chandra