Knowing and not knowing: A frequent human arrangement

ABSTRACT

The paradigmatic system of societal abuse occurs in totalitarian state systems. The relational systems of subjugation that maintain such states of terror must, of necessity, destroy any authentic civic space in which individuals can flourish. Similar dynamics characterize child abuse within families. Survival requires the use of varied strategies, the most extreme of which are dissociative in nature, and that result in marked distortions of developmental trajectories across all psychological domains. Such dynamics are mirrored in dissociative systems that, in the absence of intervention, perpetuate the trauma of non-recognition by subjugation and self-objectification, or by omnipotent denial of others’ subjectivity. All abusive systems are facilitated by bystanders, whose awareness of what is disavowed is always partial, resulting in a state of knowing and not-knowing. As dynamics shift, bystanders may behave like victims—passive, helpless, frightened and frozen, or like perpetrators—taking vicarious and voyeuristic pleasure in abuse or actively aiding and abetting the abusers.

KEYWORDS:

• Bystander
• closed systems
• dissociation
• dissociative identity disorder
• identification with the aggressor
• perpetrator
• totalitarianism
• victim