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Review of
Community Relations Professional Seminar and Public Program
Peter
Fonagy, Ph.D. and Stuart Twemlow M.D.
Preventing
Mass Murder in Schools:
Understanding Violent Children from "Peaceful" Families
BY
Myrna Little, Ph.D.
On March 15th
DSPP's Community Relations Committee, chaired by Ms. Cheryl Martin, was
privileged to host one of this year's most relevant programs: The
Prevention of Violence in Schools. Drs. Peter Fonagy and Stuart Twemlow,
co-directors of the Peaceful Schools Project at the Child and Family
Center at the Menninger Clinic, presented in tandem a psychoanalytic
explanation of violence - its social context, research findings, and
methods of intervention - to a professional audience of more than 100 in
the afternoon, and in the evening to a smaller audience of interested
parents, teachers, students, and others from the community.
The
Psychoanalysis of Violence
Dr. Fonagy
opened the forum with a discussion of psychic reality, which extends
Bion's model of the mind, and yet which demonstrates his own clinical
powers of observation and synthesizing. In his model Fonagy proposed that
play has a pivotal role in the development of thinking as well as in
emotional experience, and especially in their integration. Between the
ages of two and five two modes of psychic experience are believed to
prevail. One is a serious frame of mind, which he terms psychic
equivalence, in which internal aspects of the child exactly correspond
to external reality. The second, pretend mode, occurs in play and
the child knows that the internal experience does not equal the external.
The reflective mode is an integration of both psychic equivalence
and the pretend mode. Normally occurring by age five, this is a mental
state in which mental life is experienced as representations of inner and
outer, no longer either equated or split off. Lastly, mentalization
occurs as a result of the mental states being reflected upon, usually
through experience of secure play with parents and/or older siblings in
which the child finds credence with their ideas and feelings, and thus
forms a necessary link with reality. Neurotic children, in contrast, have
failed to achieve this integration, so that the pretend mode of
functioning becomes undifferentiated from psychic equivalence. If the
inability of self-reflection persists into adulthood, psychic equivalence
and the pathological pretend-mode (dissociation) have a vital role in acts
of enraged violence. Fonagy also argued for the necessity of the therapist
to function as does the parent, i.e., thinking thoughts as
representations, rather than as replicas of either external reality or
internal fantasy. Psychoanalytic therapy, in this way, is itself a
"pretend" experience, where play is essential to the developing
of the mind. Dr. Fonagy has been presenting this model since 1996, and the
interested reader my pursue papers on "Playing and Reality I, II, and
III" in Fonagy and Target (1996), Target and Fonagy (1996), and
Fonagy (2000).
A
Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Murderer
To illustrate
his model and the clinical evidence of psychic equivalence, Fonagy
presented the analysis of a woman who murdered her boyfriend. He
demonstrated from the patient's comments that in equivalence she felt
emptied, that thoughts were not owned by her mind. As the treatment
progressed he came to understand that for her genuine feelings and ideas
were abhorrent, that mental states had to be repudiated (Bion's reverse of
alpha function and cannibalization of thought). She was adapted thus to
trauma by blocking all symbolic thought, so that he was prevented from
introducing any alternative through play and pretending. This, Fonagy
believes, is what all therapists face when engaged with violent patients.
Describing his countertransference as "brimming with discomfort and
confusion," threatened with danger, litigation, enactments, and
complaints of his incompetence, he began to recognize - primarily through
her dreams - the presence of an alien self. Like the Chinese boxes
of which she dreamed, the patient experienced an inner world within which
was contained another and alien self. This alien was the infant who found
herself in the mother's mind, a mother whose image of her baby came to
colonize the self of the patient, and who lived there as embodied
vacuousness. Fonagy found she would learn nothing from his
interpretations, yet gradually the mental language of his communications
began to birth her own nascent reflective capacities.
It was within
this field of powerful projective identification, and in a moment of
evacuation of unthinkable shame, that the patient - who had survived for
years by finding vehicles to contain her torturing as well as vacuous self
- was recognized in her murderousness by the analyst/container. In that
shocking moment she was able to tell him the truth of her lethal act, one
that, Fonagy said, was truly an act of self-defense.
Understanding Murderous Violence
Fonagy cites
three processes that link violence to failure of mentalization: 1) absence
of awareness of one's mental states, which results in failure of
responsibility for one's action; 2) failure to anticipate the consequences
of acts upon others; and 3) failure in the representational system, so
that thoughts are unreal, insignificant, or dissociated.
Failure of
mentalization turned into violence in this patient's case because the
alien self - which was her mother's image of her as terrifying,
unmanageable, meaningless and vacuous - was continually projected. When
the boyfriend, however, did not identify with this projected alien self,
and instead returned it to her with mocking and revulsion, she became
fatally violent and had to mindlessly destroy what that which she
externalized. Thus, in violence a deficit of mentalization both creates
and reveals the alien self; violence becomes a destructive actuality as
humiliation and shame are experienced in the mode of psychic equivalence.
Fonagy
strongly argued that the therapeutic goal of intervention is the recovery
of mentalization by clarification of moment-to-moment changes in the
patient's mental state (Fonagy, 1999). With deficits of mentalization,
enactments cannot be interpreted, as they carry no symbolic meaning beyond
wishing to create a specific state in the therapist. The therapist's
respect for minds, however, generates respect for self, respect for others
and ultimately for the human community. It is this respect, Fonagy
insists, which drives and organizes the therapeutic endeavor with violent
patients and speaks with greatest clarity to our psychological heritage.
A Crucible
for Murder: The Social Context of Violent Children
Following Dr.
Fonagy's account of the violent mind and his conclusion that crime is a
developmental issue, Dr. Stuart Twemlow addressed the social context
within which this defective mind - in Bion's sense - is cultivated.
"Clearly," he stated, "if crime is primarily developmental
then families must be involved." It is the level of parental
conflict, however - not divorce or family structural change per se - that
correlates conduct problems in children to research findings of
disorganized attachment. In Bowlby's terms, children unable to see
themselves as thinking, attentional beings because of the absence of early
recognition of their separateness do not develop an appropriate
"internal working model." Children thus impaired cannot identify
their own feelings or imagine consequences of their behavior, thus in
psychic equivalence destruction of the physical object may be seen as the
only solution to a problem.
The Social
Context for Psychoanalysis
While a social
context incapable of social bonding obviously might include the family,
the school, the media, and the world at large, Dr. Twemlow's psychodynamic
formulation of social context includes a convergence of three
perpspectives which are themselves derived from the social context, and
which together define, shape, and in-form the current impingement upon
psychoanalytic thinking.
Twemlow's
first perspective - like many psychologies - is drawn from Hegel's notion
of binary opposites, terms which are the positive and negative of each
other, and which also are the dominant and subordinate of each other
(e.g., white/black; good/bad; male/female). Just as Fonagy's concept of
the self is a function of otherness, Twemlow argued for a dialectally
determined interaction between individuals and their social milieu.
Second, from
Alfred Adler Twemlow perceives social context to be understood according
to the means by which a group creates its membership. Whenever membership
is exclusionary, power struggles for inclusion tend to result in
pathological interactions. If these are unsuccessful, a new group develops
which then invents a place for itself through illusionary superiority.
Psycho-analysis itself arose as a new group, destined, the early analysts
hoped, to provide the self-knowledge that would promote healthy and
peaceful communities.
A third
perspective folded into Twemlow's operational understanding of social
context is Fonagy's conceptual synthesis of attachment theory and social
systems. By comparing healthy social systems to securely attached families
that enable children to develop self-reflection, empathy, and group
cohesion, defective social systems (including schools) - by the neglect of
children's unique subjective experience - foster undeveloped minds and
psychopathology. Both Twemlow and Fonagy have found evidence of
behaviorally oriented, mechanically managed schools that simulate
disorganized attachments and breed climates of reward-punishment, neglect
of the subjective mental states of students, and emphasis on control.
These schools are characterized by the bullying of students as well as by
the bullying of teachers, and promote the machine-like environment of
security checks, presence of armed police, police dogs, and other
paraphernalia which accompanies power and punishment dynamics within
prison-like environments.
Studies
conducted to investigate bullying have revealed two types. The more
sadistic type is found to enjoy the humiliation and hurt of others and
seems to be based in envy and/or pathological transference. The second
type is the teacher who fails to set limits, allows chaos to develop in
the classroom, and then reacts with sweeping punishment. From a securely
attached school perspective, the necessity for teachers to become socially
and emotionally literate is apparent if the development of friendships, in
an atmosphere of non-coercive power dynamics, is to foster group cohesion
as well as academic learning.
Pathological
Contexts in Families, Bullies, Victims, and Bystanders
To illustrate
that crime is a developmental achievement that occurs in a pathological
family context, Dr. Twemlow reviewed a case of disorganized attachment in
a double murder by an adolescent boy. Besides the grim, self-mutilating
which reestablished a feeling of boundedness as well as grandiose strength
and power in this boy, Twemlow noted a lack of mentalizing in which he,
like many other murderers, was unable to recall the moment of lethal
violence. This lack of mentalizing he attributes to autistic-contiguous
functioning (Ogden, 1989), a mental state in which sensation and concrete
action predominates exclusively over thought.
For this boy
the same pathological patterns that existed in his family existed in his
school context. Twemlow and Fonagy have found that these same
pathological, bully patterns existing in families to also exist in schools
where social control is not gained by abstraction, thinking through, and
negotiation, but rather by anxiety, malignant narcissism, and aggressive
drive. Family bullying patterns are further aided by violent mindset in
the community, not only through the media, the Internet, and in print, but
also through institutionalized violent bullying behaviors such as black
listing, hazing, excommunication, and elitist clubs and groups.
Bullying is
defined as "a sadomasochistic ritual in which repetitive and deeply
regressive attempts are made to fetishize the victim and to inflict
continuing, humiliating and undignified attack." The sadistic bully
by definition must be paired with a masochistic victim. The social effect
of the bully upon the victim, however belongs to the bystander. Thus a triangle
of danger consists of the bully, the victim, and the bystander.
Bystanders are
of three types: those too frightened to resist the recruiting bully
(present in most schools); the avoidant-bystander, best exemplified by
school personnel, especially principals who deny the existence of
problems; and third, the power-hungry bystander children who act as
puppet-masters and set up victims to commit crimes for which they do not
wish to be blamed. The crucial aspect of the danger triangle as well as
the major point for intervention is this: without an audience, bullies
have little motivation to continue reenacting bully-victim roles. While
these roles are interchangeable, the juvenile criminal is one in whom the
bully role has become fixed. Thus the bully dynamic defined by Twemlow and
his team of investigators consists of an autistic defense, a repetitive
sadomasochistic fetishizing of the victim object, and a voyeuristic
bystander component which then intensifies the manic, triumphant, exciting
organismic bully-ritual. The bystander multiplies the humiliation and loss
of social face of the victim, which then potentiates the violent revenge.
The Copycat
Phenomenon
The copycat
phenomenon, which is gaining a rather extensive attention by the FBI and
others, was also discussed and conceptualized by Dr. Twemlow within a
psychoanalytical dialectical social systems model. He believes the copycat
child is a bully-bystander, one who voyeuristically, perversely, and
vicariously identifies with the bully, is simultaneously excited and
triumphant in this vicarious way, and avoids responsibility and
consequences of lethal violence. The typical type in a school yard sets up
the beatings, warns the teacher, and makes sure everything goes smoothly
to ensure the perverse, sadomasochistic humiliation of the victim.
In the
Menninger research, children exposed to clips of violent movies were found
to accommodate to their normal fear responses by suppression, or
numbing-out. Such children begin to manifest inappropriate humor and
dissociation. In the researchers' opinion, such pathological sublimation
leads to the victim-victimizer dialectic in which fear elicits
debilitating, primitive defensive ego reactions, pathological
transferences, and splitting, which in turn potentiates disconnections
from the peer group because their behaviors have become alienating. To
this notion is added the concept of kindling, a form of behavioral
desensitization which implies the brain has become sensitized to recurrent
cycles of anxiety, and therefore requires less and less to respond
pathologically. Twemlow proposed that the bullying sadomasochistic ritual
causes deeper regression than does either suppression or kindling because
it is fueled by the bystander.
Intervention
In both the
controlled pilot study and research reported (Twemlow, Fonagy, et al, in
press), psychoanalytically informed intervention focused on coercive power
dynamics and psychodynamically informed methods of redressing these
imbalances. They report dramatic reduction of school-suspensions,
disciplinary referrals, and a highly significant increase in mean
standardized academic achievement test scores as compared to the control
school. To illustrate the potential for either good or bad outcomes, Dr.
Twemlow discussed two case vignettes, which support the theory and
research findings of the Peaceful Schools Project of the Menninger Clinic
(these vignettes may be read in their entirety on the dspp.com web site
where both the Fonagy and Twemlow text are reproduced). While not claiming
that seriously disturbed children can be cured by school climate only,
these researchers note that some children do make lasting changes if their
school environments are favorable.
In the evening
forum for the public Dr. Twemlow reiterated the inner life of
homicidal/suicidal children, the safety needs of the school culture,
exclusion rituals which elicit power struggles, the early signs of
trouble, and emphasized the key to intervention, which is knowing when the
danger-triangle roles require action. He presented a continuum of
responses of children to threat, from the reaction of healthy egos to the
bully-victim-bystander ritual attack. He listed the prevalent parental
assumptions to include: that teachers know what they are doing, that kids
can deal with each other, and that any problem is believed to indicate
mental illness. The core elements of their treatment program devised by
their research team was presented in graph form; it includes a
"positive climate campaign," a discipline plan which teachers
must model, and a "gentle warrior" concept from Marshall Arts
which teaches children control, defensiveness, and targets how to manage
bullies. In addition the program incorporates a "Bruno Honor"
adult mentor system and a peer support plan.
In the
discussion periods that followed both the afternoon and evening sessions,
the above contents were clarified and other issues addressed, e.g.
addictions, the attachments of murderers who killed victims they did not
know, and whether this approach is applicable to sociopaths. One of the
most delightful responses came from Dr. Fonagy when asked how his theory
of psychic equivalence and pretend mode compare to Bion's alpha and beta
elements and to Ogden's dialectics. Embodying his own theoretical emphasis
on play, he delighted his audience when he playfully replied,
"Because I thought of it!" More seriously, he shared that he and
all British analysts are steeped in Bion, that his own writings are
dominated by Bion, and that none of us ever create a really novel way of
seeing personality. He distinguished himself from both Bion and Ogden,
however, by his developmental, psychoanalytic perspective, which is linked
to cognitive developmental findings. He believes that the only truth any
of us know is what we experience in the consulting room, and if some
people find Bion, Ogden, or others to be freeing, this is exactly as it
should be - pluralistic.
In the evening
Dr. Twemlow responded to many questions from teachers and parents.
Significant to this reviewer in light of the relatively small audience, is
the resistance the researchers found in adults, parents, and bullies,
which, he believes, is offset by the efficacy of the program with the
children and teachers. Addressing a question regarding the "puzzle of
violence," he referred again to the disinhibiting required in order
to injure others, such as occurs in the military, and closed by
emphasizing once more that the primary inhibitor of violence is the social
context, the influence of other people, in other words, attachments.
References
Fonagy, P. and
Target, M. (1996). Playing with reality I: Theory of mind and the normal
development of psychic reality. IJPA, 77, 217-233.
Fonagy, P.
(1999). Memory and therapeutic action. IJPA, 80, 215.
Fonagy, P. and
Target, M. (2000). Playing with reality III: The persistence of dual
psychic reality in borderline patients. IJPA, 81, 853-873.
Ogden, T.
(1989). The Primitive Edge of Experience. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
Target, M. and
Fonagy, P. (1996). Playing with reality II: The development of psychic
reality from a theoretical perspective. IJPA, 77, 459-479.
Dr.
Little is a training analyst of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian
Analysts, long-standing member and Immediate Past President of DSPP, and
maintains a private practice in Dallas.
© DSPP Bulletin, April 2001
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