THE ARMENIAN PSYCHE: TRANS-GENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION
by Dogu Ergil

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 28 2007

Many Armenians, especially those living in the diaspora, are euphoric
about the adoption of a resolution by the US House Committee on
Foreign Affairs labeling what happened to a number of Armenians in
the last decade of the Ottoman Empire as genocide, implicating the
modern Republic of Turkey as well. Armenians took this as "victory"
because they had become perennial mourners of a tragic past and a third
party they valued had now endorsed their victimhood. They work very
hard to get this result because every validation further reinforces
their collective identity shaped by victimhood born out of a "chosen
trauma." And the Armenians did not have to go out of their way to find
this trauma. They were decimated and bereft of the land they lived on
for millenniums by the Turks. It does not matter whether it was today’s
Turks or those of 1915. They could not punish their wrongdoers, and now
others are doing it for them, at least by acknowledging their crimes.

How does this mechanism work? When a traumatized group cannot reverse
its feelings of resentment, animosity, helplessness and humiliation
towards a chosen "enemy," it cannot effectively go through the work
of mourning. Consequently, it transfers these unfinished psychological
tasks to future generations. Such transmissions may take place through
deliberate official policies and formal education, or it may take place
unconsciously in the family environment during child rearing. When
the group’s historical narrative is passed onto the child with the
stories of ancestors that have experienced a massive trauma and
severe losses, children of the next generation(s) are given serious
tasks that link them up with the group’s history which is learned
as the sole truth. They are obligated to complete the mourning
by reversing pain, shame and humiliation. This is done by turning
humiliation into accusation, helplessness into assertion and hatred
into lasting political and diplomatic strategies that would harm the
"enemy." This trans-generational transmission connects the members
of the group mentally and emotionally and carves out an identity out
of a traumatic reading of history.

Traumatized groups, who may not have the "power" to turn their
passivity into assertiveness, may idealize victimhood. Victimhood is
defined as: "A state of individual and collective ethnic mind that
occurs when the traditional structures that provide an individual
sense of security and self-worth through membership in a group are
shattered by aggressive, violent political outsiders. Victimhood can
be characterized by either an extreme or persistent sense of mortal
vulnerability."

When victimhood is acquired as a state of mind, not only does it
become the foundation of group identity but it also deafens the
traumatized group to the apology offered by the perpetrators or their
descendents. In order to accept such an apology and to forgive the
descendents of their ancestors’ enemy, the group would have to abandon
its shared sense of "idealized victimhood." But then, this is also
a traumatic process because its identity is shaped by victimhood.

A chosen trauma may assume new functions as it passes from one
generation to the next. In some generations when: 1- the perpetrator
or its descendents insist in denying their past wrongdoings; 2- the
group is still under domination; 3- the group has not acquired enough
power and leverage to overcome its helplessness and humiliation,
it may sustain its shared and idealized victimhood. Or a subgroup
may appear amongst the wider traumatized group that may be called
"avengers." Avengers carry no feelings of guilt for the wrongdoings
and brutalities they commit against the perpetrator or better,
their descendents, because their victims are the source of the
"original sin."

In the light of this analysis, it seems seeking peace of mind and
a diplomatic peace with Turkey by the Armenians — especially those
living in the diaspora, who have little connection with the needs of
citizens of the Republic of Armenia — will not be that easy until
and unless the mourning process is healthily concluded. Of course
there is plenty to be done by the Turks to put the minds and souls
of the Armenians to rest by re-evaluating their common past. This
has to be done not by the politicians but rather by the people who
are in direct contact, trying to connect their futures.