Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
How to handle all the madness associated with violence in the Arab world? It is as if the “spring” was just waiting to explode in our faces, with all its historical, religious, sectarian and ethnic manifestations. It is built on excluding the other, exiling him and killing him in cold blood.
The phenomenon of resorting to violence is old; it goes back to the time of Cain and Abel, when the sacrifice was accepted from Abel but not from Cain. The latter, instead of thinking about it and finding out the reasons, threatened to kill his brother, and eventually killed him.
Psychologist define violence as a behaviour resulting from frustration; some of them describe it as a behavioural pattern that results to frustration, accompanied by tension and containing a long-lasting deliberate intention to cause physical or mental harm to a living thing, or a substitute thereof.
Leo Buck Sundy, a psychology researcher, conducted analysis on the family tree of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He discovered a long lineage of criminals and saints; some of his predecessors were saints while others were criminals, and his aunt had killed her husband with poison.
Therefore, he put forward the hypothesis that the biological foundation was the same in both cases. However, the difference lies in the choices that one makes in life. The temperamental side of Dostoevsky’s family was dedicating time to idealism, which produced saints, while at other times it was the complete opposite, producing criminals.
On the other hand, this hypothesis pushes us to the conclusion that the same person can be a saint and criminal at the same time. Pointing out that we are all descendants of Cain and that’s why we have a tendency for violence and the desire to eliminate our enemies (i.e. the desire to murder is either conscious or unconscious) exists in all of us.
Though some of us excel in controlling desires, therefore become Abel-like, others surrender to negative feelings such as envy, revenge, anger and hatred, and become Cain-like.
Gusdorf says: “The dual ego of ‘I and the other’ is composed in the form of a conflict. Human nature is characterised by selfishness; therefore, for survival it becomes a must to eliminate the other who is a threat to its existence. This is due to the human reality that consists of dissimilar socio-psychological combinations of races, which makes a person, according to Hobbs, “a wolf against his fellow man.”
Violence is a negative behavioural disorder that only results in more violence. The treatment lies in fostering a culture of non-violence through the psychological, spiritual and intellectual faculties that allow the individual to adopt a non-violent attitude in his personal, social and political life.
How to handle all the madness associated with violence in the Arab world? It is as if the “spring” was just waiting to explode in our faces, with all its historical, religious, sectarian and ethnic manifestations. It is built on excluding the other, exiling him and killing him in cold blood.
The phenomenon of resorting to violence is old; it goes back to the time of Cain and Abel, when the sacrifice was accepted from Abel but not from Cain. The latter, instead of thinking about it and finding out the reasons, threatened to kill his brother, and eventually killed him.
Psychologist define violence as a behaviour resulting from frustration; some of them describe it as a behavioural pattern that results to frustration, accompanied by tension and containing a long-lasting deliberate intention to cause physical or mental harm to a living thing, or a substitute thereof.
Leo Buck Sundy, a psychology researcher, conducted analysis on the family tree of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He discovered a long lineage of criminals and saints; some of his predecessors were saints while others were criminals, and his aunt had killed her husband with poison.
Therefore, he put forward the hypothesis that the biological foundation was the same in both cases. However, the difference lies in the choices that one makes in life. The temperamental side of Dostoevsky’s family was dedicating time to idealism, which produced saints, while at other times it was the complete opposite, producing criminals.
On the other hand, this hypothesis pushes us to the conclusion that the same person can be a saint and criminal at the same time. Pointing out that we are all descendants of Cain and that’s why we have a tendency for violence and the desire to eliminate our enemies (i.e. the desire to murder is either conscious or unconscious) exists in all of us.
Though some of us excel in controlling desires, therefore become Abel-like, others surrender to negative feelings such as envy, revenge, anger and hatred, and become Cain-like.
Gusdorf says: “The dual ego of ‘I and the other’ is composed in the form of a conflict. Human nature is characterised by selfishness; therefore, for survival it becomes a must to eliminate the other who is a threat to its existence. This is due to the human reality that consists of dissimilar socio-psychological combinations of races, which makes a person, according to Hobbs, “a wolf against his fellow man.”
Violence is a negative behavioural disorder that only results in more violence. The treatment lies in fostering a culture of non-violence through the psychological, spiritual and intellectual faculties that allow the individual to adopt a non-violent attitude in his personal, social and political life.
