A 4-years' research project is currently being rounded up at the Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway, which looks at Humiliation and Holocaust/Genocide/War. Case studies are Rwanda/Burundi and Somalia on the background of the German Holocaust. The entry point for the interest in the dynamics of humiliation was the widely accepted argument that Germany welcomed Hitler because Germany felt humiliated after World War I by the Treaty of Versailles (28th June 1919). After World War II the victorious allies took care to not humiliate the defeated Germany again, – to avoid World War III so-to-speak. Instead, Germany received Marshall Plan help and was integrated into Western alliances. High politics thus demonstrate the use of psychological reflections, and humiliation is identified as cause of world wars. The question may be asked: Why is humiliation not more widely researched in psychology?

The following articles have been written on the basis of fieldwork in Africa (1998-1999):
- Humiliation and the Human Condition: Mapping a Minefield
- What Every Negotiator Ought to Know: Understanding Humiliation
- The ‘Framing Power’ of International Organizations, and the Cost of Humiliation
- Money and Humiliation: Why the Corporate Sector Should Support Global Social Policy
- Humiliation and Rationality in International Relations. The Role of Humiliation in North Korea, Rwanda, Somalia, Germany, and the Global Village
- Recognition or humiliation – The Psychology of Intercultural Communication
- How Humiliation Creates Cultural Differences and Political Divisions: The Psychology of Intercultural Communication – Germany and Somalia as Cases
- How Research Can Humiliate: Critical Reflections On Method
- The Anatomy of Humiliation and Its Relational Character
- Humiliation in the Flesh. Honour Is »FACE«, Arrogance Is »NOSE UP«, and Humiliation Is »TO BE PUT DOWN«
- Humiliation, Rape and Love: Force and Fraud in the Erogenous Zones
- How Globalisation Transforms Gender Relations: The Changing Face of Humiliation
- Gendercide and Humiliation in Honour and Human-Rights Societies
- Were Ordinary Germans Hitler’s »Willing Executioners«? Or Were They Victims of Humiliating Seduction and Abandonment? The Case of Germany and Somalia
- Love, Holocaust, and Humiliation. The German Holocaust and the Genocides in Rwanda and Somalia
- Hitler, Shame and Humiliation: The Intricate Web of Feelings Among the German Population Towards Hitler
- Were the Germans Hitler’s »Willing Executioners?«

Lindner, Evelin Gerda, Humiliation – Trauma That Has Been Overlooked: an Analysis Based on Fieldwork in Germany, Rwanda / Burundi, and Somalia. In: Traumatology, 7,1, April 2001, pp. 51-79 see
URL http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma/

Abstract What differentiates trauma from humiliation? This is one of the questions this article tries to answer. Trauma may occur without humiliation, as in the case of natural disaster, however, humiliation may be the core agent of trauma. Furthermore, this paper suggests that the role and significance of humiliation for traumatic experiences has long been overlooked by researchers and practitioners. The paper highlights the macro-historical backdrop for this neglect. It is the unfolding of human rights as opposed to more traditional honour codes at all levels of society both national and international. This change is a major force in making the category of trauma increasingly important, and in moving such practices as ‘breaking the will of the child’, that were once legitimate and even prescribed, into the category of trauma. The paper also addresses the fact that social science is part of this transition and would benefit from making more visible how it is deeply interlinked with this process.

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Short biographical note
Evelin Gerda Lindner is a cross-cultural psychologist with broad international experience who speaks several languages. She has lived and worked in Norway, New Zealand, Rwanda, Somalia, Egypt, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Israel, Portugal, Germany and the United States. Evelin Lindner works at the Psychology Institute at Oslo University and is a consultant to transnational companies and NGOs. In 1993 she organised the "Ideenkette" (chain of ideas) in Hamburg, a large-scale public event promoting global responsibility that attracted widespread media attention. She is currently preparing a guidebook on the problems of humiliation for officials working with government agencies and NGOs.

Evelin Gerda Lindner
Email   g.lindner@psykologi.uio.no
Further information and texts can be found under the
URL http://www.uio.no/~evelinl/

Citation Evelin Gerda Lindner, Oslo, Humiliation in armed conflicts. In: TRN-Newsletter 2, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, June 2004
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net2/forum2/lindner.htm

Copyright  © 2004, Evelin Gerda Lindner and TRN-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.