Psychological effects of political violence

The concern of this essay would be to evaluate how Freud’s psychoanalysis is able to help the counselor deal with the victims of political violence. To facilitate this discussion this work will a) try to define the term– ‘victim’, b) try to show the possible ways of falling a victim of political violence c) briefly list the aims of counseling and d) discuss the tools used by psychoanalysis and its application to the victims of political violence.

WHO IS A VICTIM?
Toma Tomov defines the term ‘victim’ as follows: “as a concept from the interpersonal realm, ‘victim’ builds on the experience of helplessness and hopelessness that befalls individuals, who have been denied the right to make a choice.” He goes on to say that becoming a victim is a traumatic event. This put one outside the range of usual human experience.

Political or Interpersonal violence can affect one physically or emotionally. When one becomes a victim of violence it throws one off-guard because it is outside the usual boundaries of human experience. It shatters the foundational presumption of social relationship namely that there is an implicit social contract of the community which has ‘live and let live’ as its policy.

As Toma Tomov observes, the trauma is due to the “fact that the source of violence emerges as a result of a role shift taking place with agencies such as the police or the secret service. There is a basic understanding that the police force exists to offer protection. In the case of political violence, there is a shift from protective to violent role.” This understanding would then mean that the victim is victimised because he or she is evil. The victim becomes like the child that has become the victim to incest. Political violence thus abuses the individuals through the agents who are believed to be protectors.