Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Genesis 4:9-10
Introduction.
This is an old age question. “Am I my brother’s keeper” Christianity is very tied to social relations and both its obligations and consequences. This question Father God asked of Cain because of he murdered his brother Abel. Able’s blood was crying out for justice. What Cain did not want to state that it was his greed and envy of Abel that made kill his brother. In theological terms this evil action came from within him and this is called our sinful nature.
Secular psychologists for the most part dismiss a person’s spiritual nature. Psycho-social construction of reality must and does concern itself with the construction of one’s reality through the connections of social relationships. This process must incorporate itself with the formation of self in society. Everyone in society participates in this process to some degree or another.
The reality of everyday life incorporated in what Cooley’s called “the Looking Glass Self”. This construction of one reality is the self-embracement of how one constructs their psycho-social self-image by what they feel is being judged by others.
Anthony Giddens is his book called, “The Consequences of Modernity” touches on this topic on how modernity has also pushed mankind to the brink of disintegration of self. But like most social scientists once again ignore man’s spiritual nature. Yes, we can look to the influencers on our lives but we must also understand that Father God is very much interested in us to bring about His truth to what is really happening.
Failure to Recognize Trauma
When trauma is not recognized, or validated by the family or community, to which one is part of, there is a response that there might be something wrong with him, and everybody else is sane. When trauma is experienced on an ongoing basis, this can’t convert into PTSD, and there are many symptoms of PTSD, which range from hyper villages or arousal, severe anxiety, agitation, irritability, depression, hostility, distrust, fear, poor impulse control, self-destructive behaviors, self-medication, nightmares, etc.
Discuss my PhD dissertation of the ‘Association of PTSD and Child Abuse in the El Salvadorean Population”.
Victim Blaming
Victim Blaming- Lays the responsibility for the offense committed against others on the rather than themselves.
• Need to assure them that they are not alone.
• Guard against “blaming the victim”.
• Need to take responsibility for their lifestyle and actions.
Collective Trauma
Trauma basically is a brokenness that has resulted for mankind due to our rebellion against God. It’s our story, both personal and collective, that has been buried in the shadows of our own consciousness, and it’s plays time it again in our lives. Trauma creates a hard shell over us separating us from ourselves and others. Trauma consists of broken moments that trigger and resurface time and again in the darkness of our subconscious. Trauma creates a void, and an emptiness that can only be healed through the power of God. We make attempts at healing but it is a long and painful process. As a psychologist I can tell you that human effort along is not sufficient.
Trauma as its basic conception, pushes one to become that which has been fractured. Many people have gone through the trauma of filed relationships. We fail to realize that these on-going trauma of failed relationships and rejection leave long and lasting deep scars on our personality which in Christian circles is called our soul. We grow up in a very self-centered and self-serving world. We carry that trauma into every area of our lives and it affects not only us but those who we have interconnectedness with.
Remember the Samaritan woman at the well who met Jesus and she wanted to discuss religion. Christ discussed with her worship. She began discussing the differences between her faith to divert attention from her own fractured self. Here’s a woman that usually should collect water at the well in the morning with other ladies but because her life was so chaotic, no one was there to associate with her. She had many broken relationships, many failed marriages. Even though her story isn’t complete scripturally, my years of experience of working with people that have fractured lives in multi-generational relationships that their unending story throughout their lives and the lives of others.
Trauma disrupts, and breaks down every spiritual, physical, emotional, and psychological form of communication and relationships that an individual has. I stated in the first teaching that trauma is never an individual act, but an act that involves many other people generational trauma, which we have named collective trauma that deals with multi-generational issues of rebellion and separation from God.
Response to Traumatic Events
Our mind is very powerful, and when trauma occurs, automatic signs begin to arise within us, and it may cause fear or aggression, resorting to flight or fight. Murder, rape, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, psychological and emotional abuse.
Some people when they are experiencing trauma, and their instinct is to freeze. They freeze because they’re unable to gauge or measure or understand how to defend themselves against violence, and our own dysfunctional behavior.
• Acute stress experienced in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event.
• Anxiety, dissociate symptoms, and other manifestations that occur within one month after exposure to trauma.
• Symptoms include victim’s re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, numbing of general responsiveness, and increased agitation.
• Victims may suffer a wide variety of mental disorders.
• Depression
• Substance Abuse
• No clear bright line as to the types of mental disorders a victim may suffer.
• Certain events may re-trigger the recollection of the trauma
• Intensity and frequency generally diminish over time.
• Victims must learn to continue to function despite reactions.
• Victims frequently encounter social isolation and invalidation of their efforts to come to terms with their experiences.
Chronic Developmental Exposure to Trauma
• Attachment- intimate relationships suffer.
• Biology-trauma affects emotional regulation, cognitive functioning, and ability to learn from past experiences.
• Affect-can’t tolerate stress, hyperactivity, communication skills suffer.
• Dissociation- those who suffer on-going trauma can suffer from amnesia.
• Behavioral-hinders appropriate impulse control, aggression, disrupted sleep.
• Cognitive difficulty in concentration.
• Self-concept-fragmented though patterns, struggle with self-esteem.
Trauma Impacts on Relationships
• Trust- relationships suffer from lack of trust. In this of itself means that there is a lack of attachment and bonding for people with other people. Attachment is the emotional connection between people. Usually, it begins with the primary caregiver and bonding describes the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of one person to another. If the perpetrator initiated the trauma with the victim, then this process is hinder or even severed.
Coming Out of Darkness
There is always deliverance from the bondages of darkness that has surrounded our lives. Confession and surrender to Father God delivers us from darkness in our lives. It is through the redemptive act of Jesus Christ that the process of deliverance from these chains can be healed over time.
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Col. 1:13-1