From: Andrew Phelps <dis_course@yahoo.com>
To: psysr-humanrights@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [PsySR-humanrights] Stoning of adulterers in Afghanistan
Date: Tue 08/17/10 07:54 PM
Baz:
Another way to frame this is to identify the "culture lens" for what it is, and not psychologize that behavior (abstractly and out of context). The "culture lens" itself has problems because of the anthropological underpinnings of today's national security culture. I'm glad for your bringing this behavior issue out of the political framework of the Afghanistan war.
The "lived experience" of this kind of brutal and narrow behavior dynamic is with us also, as you properly show. Sue Poole was a successful newspaper reporter who was driven out of her chosen profession because of being identified as having client/survivor status. She then faced many kinds of "stoning" type behaviors, metaphorically speaking, with the collusion of the mental health system. She just said, "Whatever," and .. kept trying. A family pattern of "bringing her back" (metaphor again) rendered her effectively unable to break out of the brutal and narrow behavior dynamic to which she was consigned. We finally sought a "feminist therapy" regime to stand up to that kind of "battering syndrome," but our efforts proved alas inadequate to the task.
In May she passed away, in reaction to the violence of a "stoning" experience, one of many. The Charleston County Coroner's report (and the Coroner told me she was quite troubled by what happened) was that what happened was an outcome of Sue's 'medical condition'. That description does not engage the behavior issues underlying her situation, I'm sorry to say.
In psychology, we should identify such behavior dynamics accurately and learn to work against them; in that I think I would align with Srp's comment.
Andrew Phelps
On Tue, 8/17/10, Baz wrote:
Tvx wrote:
This is an example of a very primitive culture, shocking in our present day, but not foreign to human behavior in many cultures over many centuries, by my read of history.
I am uncomfortable with viewing any culture as "primitive". Cultures are what they are only in relation to each other. Many (perhaps a majority) around the world view the U.S.'s retention of the death penalty (along with "primitive" Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia) as being proof positive of the U.S. being "primitive" and a gross violation of the widely-accepted basic human right to life. My two cents' worth ..
Baz
Srp wrote:
The NYT article on the stoning (presuming it to be approximately accurate) alarmed and puzzled me. I could imagine a state making adultery punishable by death. But it is a very long way from state punishment of violation of a social norm or religious edict to this story of family members luring the adulterers back with false promises of safety so family members and a couple of hundred neighbors can happily stone the couple to death. Could anyone point me to a psychological understanding of this?