Compassionate witnessing of trauma as a potential practice for security studies scholarship

Abstract

Compassion emerges when love meets suffering […] Suffering is a prerequisite for compassion." (Germer and Neff 2015: 47) What would it mean to have practice of compassion as the starting point in our research and writing on violence in the field of critical security studies? In this intervention,I propose that scholarly practice can also be something which assists and supports the healing and transformation from trauma. This intervention is informed by research on traumatic stress and PTSD (

Emotions and mindfulness in IR

“…Compassionate witnessing reminds the witness to practice compassion towards oneself for the difficult emotions which may arise in the process of witnessing the other's pain in order to be able to offer a space for the other person's experience. I have argued elsewhere (Penttinen 2016) that compassionate witnessing enables to give space for the suffering of others without being consumed or overwhelmed by it. Therefore, when witnessing the suffering for example caused by extreme violence, it is not the role of the witness to fall into panic, crisis mode or state of dissociation over the atrocities of the world, but rather be grounded enough to be able to validate the pain the other person has experienced.…”

Gender Agency and Violence

“…Experience of violence is deeply transformative. It challenges core beliefs of a person in their own sense of self, goodness in others, capacity trust other people and society (Penttinen 2016). Experience based research shows that targets of violence name psychological abuse and living under fear as more harmful than the direct physical violence.…”

“…The experience of violence is deeply humiliating and transforms the sense of self of the target and their sense of belonging to a community (Penttinen 2016). Moreover, cultures and societies that value individualism, strength, heteronormative heterosexual relationships and pursuit of happiness, reinforce also the sense of shame which is the result of experience of violence.…”

“…We know agency from the outcome of the action and not on the type of action that is taken. I have argued elsewhere (Penttinen 2016) that individual the process of transforming trauma should be regarded as a sign of agency as it leads to change and transformation at a personal level. Here, I focus on the actions and processes which targets of violence have taken that lead to change of their situation.…”