Sascha Karminski, Bremen Healing in exile - Tibetan ways of coping with trauma caused by torture in Chinese prisons
Abstract
- Written as a thesis for a degree in psychology at the University of Bremen, Germany, this text discusses the impact Tibetan culture and buddhism have on the possibilities of coping with the consequences of torture in Chinese prisons in Tibet.
The author has spent six months in the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala, India working in a psycho-social project that offers support for Tibetan refugees in general and torture survivors in particular. The experiences of this work are presented and reflected from a psycho-analytical viewpoint, as are interviews with torture survivors and the autobiographical account of one torture survivor.
After presenting his personal background to Tibet and Dharamsala, the author gives an overview on the Tibetan history after the Chinese invasion in 1949/1950 and some human rights violations that have taken and still take place there. Further emphasis is put on the meaning of exile for Tibetans in general, and the special situation of Dharamsala as the centre of Tibetan culture in exile and home of the Dalai Lama in regard to the healing process as derived from David Becker‘s notion of seeing trauma as a process. This concept is discussed in contrast to other theoretical approaches that try to explain the consequences of torture, such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or the psycho-analytical concept of trauma.
The account of one torture survivor reflects how healing can be seen as an interdependent socio-cultural and individual process. It further gives first hints about how Tibetan culture and buddhism can support this process, but what price has to be paid for this support as well.
The mentioned interviews had been taken with a small sample of torture survivors, two men and two women, respectively lay and ordained. The questions deal with the preparation before the arrest, the time in prison, the question whether the interviewees regretted their action, and the reactions of people after release. In a process called "depth-hermeneutical reconstruction" the answers are analysed according to their hidden and supressed contents.
As the concept of karma was mentioned several times in the interviews and it remains controversial in the West, next a discussion is led on how it is perceived theoretically in the West and in the East and how it is applied practically by the interviewees in their attempts to explain what they had experienced.
Then, the findings are compared with the initial expectations. Therefore, three social categories are considered: the status of the person (lay or monastic), his/her gender and age. Being prepared for a demonstration or joining it spontaneously forms a fourth category. Finally, the term "torture survivor" that has been used throughout the text is evaluated in contrast to the terms "torture victim" and victimization that describes the internalisation of repression and a self-definition in accordance with the repressive system.
Copies of "Healing in exile" can be obtained at cost price (copies) or as a word.doc via e-mail for free.
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Sascha Karminski
Ritterstr. 15
D- 28203 Bremen
Germany
Email ambermusic@earthling.net
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Citation Sascha Karminski, Healing in exile. Abstract. In: Trauma Research Newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, July 2000.
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net1/forum1/karm.htm
Copyright © 2000, Sascha Karminski and trauma newsletter, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the trauma newsletter. For other permission questions, please contact via email the editor Cornelia_Berens@his-online.de
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