Dissociation and Identity Transformation in Female Survivors of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: A Qualitative Research Study

Abstract

This qualitative research study deals with female survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It examines dissociation and identity change in these women before, during, and after the genocide. Three theories were used to frame the findings. The 1st was assumptive world theory (R. Janoff-Bulman, 1992), which postulates that traumatic events may shatter people's everyday assumptions about the world. The 2nd was catastrophic dissociation theory (G. Boulanger, 2007), which refers to the gradual breakdown of the self as it repeatedly “experiences its psychic foundations in ways that do not happen in the average expectable life” (G. Boulanger, 2008,p. 646). The 3rd was structural dissociation theory (O. Van der Hart, E. R. S. Nijenhuis, & K. Steele, 2006), which postulates that when people encounter events that they cannot integrate into their mental lives, their personality may fragment and divide. The data were transcripts of interviews with 30 female genocide survivors. Data analysis revealed that these women experienced trauma-induced identity transformations. Before the genocide, they existed as a “Civilized Self,” with a stable identity in a secure, assumptive world. During the genocide, they existed as a “Survivor Self,” the massive trauma of the genocide having disrupted their prior self-experience and identity. After the genocide, they existed as an “Aftermath Self,” in which their Civilized and Survivor Selves coexisted in an unintegrated, dissociated form. The authors are grateful to Foundation Rwanda for providing them with the interview material and to the Rwandan survivors who shared their stories.