La Violence Research Articles

“J’ai tué": violence guerrière et fiction ed. by Déborah Lévy-Bertherat, Pierre Schoentjes

by dead or living authors, and paves the way for future research on an archeology of intimacy in the nineteenth century. Written with rigor and elegance, her book can indeed provide a model for the study of other periods and other types of letter-writers. New York University Claudie Bernard LÉVY-BERTHERAT, DÉBORAH, et PIERRE SCHOENTJES, éd. “J’ai tué”: violence guerrière et fiction. Genève: Droz, 2010. ISBN 978-90-70489-21-2. Pp. 306. 40 a. The plethora of recent studies, colloquia, and essay collections examining relations between history and literature or between history and memory in literature has overwhelmingly focused on contemporary wars. This volume is no exception, spanning from World War I to Rwanda. It treats ‘conventional’ wars, insurgent revolutions, and genocides, not to erase fundamental distinctions among them but, on the contrary, to better delineate what sets the three contexts apart. Moreover, in a century that condemned wars of aggression and thus privileged victims’ perspectives, these scholars take the opposite tack by peering into dark and troubling works which represent “la violence guerrière du point de vue de celui qui l’inflige” (9). In the first section of the volume, a short piece by Monique Canto-Sperber and a substantial survey by Schoentjes seek to sketch out theoretical frames— esthetic and ethical—for broaching such literary (and on occasion here, cinematic) undertakings. The second section features articles on World War I by LévyBertherat (discussing Blaise Cendrars and Mikhail Bulgakov) and Corinne François-Denève (examining Aziz Chouaki’s play, Les coloniaux [Mille et une nuits, 2006]). The third contains works on World War II: Yan Hamel on Sartre’s La mort dans l’âme (Gallimard, 1949), Alain Kleinberger on American war films, and Vicky Colin on Jonathan Littell’s Les bienveillantes (Gallimard, 2006). The fourth section turns its attention to Algeria and Vietnam as examples of wars for independence (studies by Laurent Véray, Philip Dine, and Catherine MilkovitchRioux ), followed by a section addressing Rwanda’s civil war strife (Anneleen Spiessens on Jean Hatzfeld and Gilbert Gatore; Jean-Pierre Karegeye on fictional portraits of executioners; and Catherine Coquio on Gatore’s Le passé devant soi [Phébus, 2008]). The collection concludes with the transcription of a roundtable discussion among documentary producer François Bernard, renowned combat photographer Patrick Chauvel, playwright Gatore, and noted author Laurent Mauvignier (whose recent novel on the Algerian War—Des hommes [Minuit, 2009]—is especially relevant here). Among the most noteworthy studies, Milkovitch-Rioux devises a compelling interdisciplinary approach to these themes. As a point of departure for her reflections on the Algerian War, she contrasts historical testimony provided by perpetrators well after the events (collected in Patrick Rotman, L’ennemi intime [Seuil, 2005]) with fictional accounts. In successfully teasing out the psychological dynamics germane to such ‘confessions,’ she is able to contextualize the choices confronting authors such as Assia Djebar and Mohammed Dib who on rare occasions attempt to project their imagination into the world of assassins and torturers. The study is nuanced in its theoretical moves. Moreover, one would be interested to see how her analysis would approach Henri Alleg’s La question (Minuit, 1958)— 574 FRENCH REVIEW 86.3 the first significant historical account from a victim tortured by the French army—banned immediately in France upon publication. Colin’s discussion of Les bienveillantes eschews Milkovitch-Rioux’s psychoanalytic angle and opts instead for a framework inspired by clinical psychology. After an at times awkward prologue needed to establish her conceptual battery, Colin very ably negotiates a discussion of the protagonist Max Aue (played off of remarks made by Littell in interviews) that highlights an attention to symptomology and the metaphorical registers used to evoke said signs of trauma. This volume does not make contributions as substantial as those in the compelling special issue of Le Débat 165 (May-August 2011) titled L’histoire saisie par la fiction. The individual studies of “J’ai tué” come across as somewhat scattered; more contributions to the theoretical section would no doubt have served to deploy a broader hermeneutic umbrella. However, the majority constitutes serious scholarly discussions of frequently non-canonical figures and at...

Act Up-Paris: French Lessons

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987) is largely responsible for the construction of “Patient Zero,” but this claim that Dugas was the source of AIDS has since been challenged. The case of “Robert R.” highlights this challenge: he was a teenager who died mysteriously in 1969, but testing of his stored tissue reveals he died of AIDS. See Gina Kolata, “Boy's 1969 Death Suggests AIDS Invaded US Several Times,” New York Times, October 28, 1987, http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/28/us/boy-s-1969-death-suggests-aids-invaded-us-several-times.html. 2. Paul Farmer, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). 3. See Edward Hooper, The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1999). Hooper theorizes that the oral polio vaccine may have been the origin of HIV. In contrast to Hooper's theory, David Ho and his colleagues identified a 1959 man in the Belgian Congo who had HIV but did not come to the same OPV hypothesis. See “Researchers Trace First HIV Case to 1959 in the Belgian Congo,” CNN, February 3, 1998, http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9802/03/earliest.aids/. Cindy Patton analyzes the racism and colonialism at work in some of the speculation about the origin of AIDS in Globalizing AIDS (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002). 4. Didier Lestrade, “Man in the Streets,” Didier Lestrade (blog), September 15, 2011, http://didierlestrade.blogspot.com/2011/09/man-in-streets.html. 5. Frédéric Martel, The Pink and the Black: Homosexuals in France since 1968, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 292. 6. Martel, The Pink and the Black, 288. 7. Didier Lestrade, Act Up: Une Histoire (Paris: Denoël, 2000), 44. 8. Lestrade, Act Up: Une Histoire, 49. 9. Act Up-Paris, “Association de lutte contre le sida,” December 25, 2006, http://www.actupparis.org/spip.php?article2823. Il s'agit de mobiliser les médias autour d'actions rapides, ponctuelles, non-violentes, et spectaculaires: les zaps. Notre but est de susciter de l'information, de provoquer des réactions, de mettre à jour des problèmes spécifiques, d'inviter “les spectateurs et spectatrices” à répondre et à se situer, d'exhiber la violence à laquelle nous sommes confrontées. La colère est au départ de notre engagement: nous entendons la transformer en acte politique d'interpellation publique. 10. Luc Biecq, “Philippe Labbey: Mort d'un ‘Actupien’ historique,” Têtu, August 31, 2011, http://www.tetu.com/actualites/france/philippe-labbey-mort-dun-actupien-historique-20073. 11. Martel, The Pink and the Black, 359. 12. Denis M. Provencher, Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship in France (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007). It is notable that the French government does not ask for racial identity as part of the French census, as it runs counter to the main ideology of the French republican model. 13. Enda McCaffrey, The Gay Republic: Sexuality, Citizenship and Subversion in France (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), 42. 14. Murray Pratt, “AIDS Writing in France,” in Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, ed. George E. Haggerty (New York: Garland, 2000), 39. 15. Quoted in Edmund White, The Flâneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris (New York: Bloomsbury, 2001), 169. 16. David M. Halperin, Saint =Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 17. Didier Lestrade, “Fuckyoufuckyeah Halperin,” Didier Lestrade (blog), December 7, 2010, http://didierlestrade.blogspot.com/2010/12/fuckyoufuckyeah-harpelin.html. 18. Didier Eribon, Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, trans. Michael Lucey (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004), 301. 19. Tim Murphy, “The French Connection,” POZ Magazine, April/May, 2011, http://www.poz.com/articles/Didier_Lestrade_HIV_2591_20109.shtml. 20. Didier Lestrade, “Je désavoue Act Up,” June 9, 2004. http://didierlestrade.fr/politique-sida/act-up/article/je-desavoue-act-up] “Vous êtes plus intéressés par ce qui se passe à l'autre bout du monde que par ce qui se passe dans vos lits.” Additional informationNotes on contributorsThomas K. NakayamaThomas K. Nakayama is Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University

Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres, XVIe–XVIIe siècle éd. par Christine Bouteille-Meister, Kjerstin Aukrust

but sought to build something new and positive; Garnier’s Spatialism distinguished itself with supranational intentions. The six essays in the opening chapter, “Langue poétique, langue maternelle ,” comment on Garnier’s poetic apprenticeship and his efforts to revive literature in Picard, helping to save the language from oblivion. In 1966, Garnier served as literary editor for Eklitra, a new journal devoted to Picard; thence and into the twenty-first century, he discusses Picard and composes even Spatialist poetry in it. The next section, “Pierre et Ilse Garnier: œuvres croisées,” presents four articles about their collaborations and, among other interesting aspects, examines the international blend of Ilse’s Germany and Pierre’s France. Stressing Pierre Garnier’s rejection of language as a national political construct, the discussants examine how the marriage of the two writers and their bilingual texts become statements of supranational reconciliation. Most important and useful in this section is the analysis of several of their Spatialist works. Avant-garde works of this nature are difficult to explicate, and rarely attract the attention that this volume devotes to them. Gaby Gappmayr’s essay deals with the question of space around the physical word on the page, while Alfons Knauth discusses Spatialism as supranationalism and explores the poetic space created by the Garniers’ French-German interlecte. Today’s graphic design studios make page layout seem easy, but not long ago it was difficult to get words and letters arranged in anything but straight lines. Thus the Garniers’ poem “Adam et Eve im Paradies,” published in Poèmes mécaniques, is drawn and lettered in a somewhat clumsy hand and the typewriter becomes the instrument of composition. In this instance the machine’s role is integral to the poetry, while in others it seems simply the means of text creation. The section “Langue des mots, langue des signes” focuses on Pierre’s promotion of Picard, his love of birds, and his connections with writers of the École de Rochefort in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Contributors Francis Édeline, Claude Debon, and Philippe Buschinger discuss central aspects of visual poetry, such as the text-image relationship, the use of color as an additional visual element , and the Spatialist use of the white space on the page. Each of these authors engages in a convincing close analysis of one work, and they underscore Garnier’s statement, “poetry is typography / typography is poetry.” It is gratifying to see reference to the “reader-viewer,” acknowledging the particular nature of visual poetry. This volume presents a well-rounded portrait of the long careers of the Garniers, illuminating some lesser-known aspects of their work and experience . Most of all, it focuses valuable attention on their Spatialist poetry and gives it in-depth critical consideration. This is an important reference work in avant-garde studies. Georgia Southern University David W. Seaman BOUTEILLE-MEISTER, CHRISTINE, et KJERSTIN AUKRUST, éd. Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres, XVIe –XVIIe siècle. Paris: PU Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2010. ISBN 978-287854 -489-3. Pp. 376. 29 a. La violence de la représentation de la souffrance, ainsi que la fascination pour la “beauté de l’horrible” (11) marquent le point de départ des actes du colloque 746 FRENCH REVIEW 85.4 international “Corps sanglants”, organisé par l’Université d’Oslo (12–14 octobre 2008). Les études qui sont réunies dans cet ouvrage se déclinent à travers les genres et les représentations des corps martyrisés, marqués par la violence de cette période historique, entre Guerre de Religions, grandes découvertes scientifiques et géographiques et remises en question de l’ordre commun. Toutes ces communications entrent dans la problématique formulée en introduction par Bouteille-Meister, à savoir “cerner le sens de ces représentations dans une société donnée, travaillée par des représentations d’ordre religieux, médical et politique” (9). Ce qui est particulièrement intéressant dans ces différentes contributions est l’utilisation qui est faite du corps et de son image. Elle permet de sublimer la souffrance et l’horreur, en faisant du lecteur un acteur et un voyeur, à la manière de ce que Christina Bien fait remarquer...

Brutal socialization: Debarbieux's researches of violence in the French schools

Surveys that E. Debarbieux conducted within l'Observatoire European de la violence scolaire showed that in great number of pupils attending French schools gradually developed a strong resentment toward that institution and, as time went by, that resentment turned into a real anti-scholar and anti-institutional culture. However, real roots of that culture are to be found in growing social-economic unequalities of french society so it shouldn't be surprising that school violence and scholar youth delinquency are spatialy concentrated in the so called 'établissements sensibles' (riskful schools) located in poor quarters at the outskirts of cities, that is, quarters that growingly assume characteristics of ghettos. Yet, in creating and spreading of certain types of school violence and youth delinquency in schools, accomplice is school organization itself which gives its contribution to accumulation of micro-violences. These micro-violences actually are the weft of everyday oppression, and reproduct, and what is more important, increase inequalities in a larger society, especially the social inequality of chances to become a victim.

Between Auschwitz and Algeria: Multidirectional Memory and the Counterpublic Witness

158 I am grateful to the editors of Critical Inquiry for their helpful comments on this essay. I also consider myself extremely fortunate to have received engaged and insightful responses to various earlier drafts from Jed Esty, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Nancy K. Miller, and Yasemin Yildiz. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. 1. See Primo Levi, “J’Etais un homme” and Frantz Fanon, “De la violence,” Les Tempsmodernes 181 (May 1961): 1533–69, 1453–93; for Eichmann and the massacre, see RobertMisrahi, “Le Proces Eichmann et la seconde naissance d’Israel,” Jacques Verges, “Lettre au Dr. Servatius sur la defense de Robert Lacoste,” and T. M. [Les Temps modernes], “La ‘Bataille de Paris,’” Les Temps modernes 186 (Nov. 1961): 552–62, 563–65, and 618–20. 2. For an extended discussion of these dimensions of Delbo’s work, seeMichael Rothberg, Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation (Minneapolis, 2000), pp. 141–77. See Between Auschwitz and Algeria: Multidirectional Memory and the Counterpublic Witness

‘Martial Races’ and ‘Imperial Subjects’: Violence and Governance in Colonial India, 1857–1914

This essay explores the specificity of colonial violence in India. Although imperial and military historians are familiar with several instances of such violence—notably the rebellion in 1857 and the 1919 massacre at the Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar—there is a broader, and arguably more significant, history that has largely escaped attention. In contrast to metropolitan European states, where sovereignty derived, at least in principle, from a covenant between subjects and government, the sovereign power of the colonial state was always predicated on the violent subjugation of ‘the natives’. However, while violence was integral to colonialism, such violence was never a purely metropolitan agency: most of those recruited to serve in the colonial military were, themselves, Indian. Exploring the history of the imperial military in South Asia after 1857, the paper outlines the complex and rather ambiguous relationship between the colonial state and its ‘native armies’. résumé Cet article se penche sur la spécificité de la violence coloniale. Malgré des exemples familiers—comme la grande révolte de 1857 en Inde ou le massacre de Jallianwalla Bagh à Amritsar en 1919—il y a une histoire plus large et plus importante qui a échappée à l'attention des historiens. Contrairement aux états européens ou la souveraineté dérivait en principe du moins d'un contrat social entre les acteurs sociaux, le pouvoir souverain de l'état colonial restait fondé sur la subjugation violente des indigènes.

Remember Mongo Beti (review)

Reviewed by: Remember Mongo Beti Cilas Kemedjio Remember Mongo Beti Ed. Ambroise KomBayreuth African Studies Series 67. Bayreuth, 2003. During our last meeting in his office at the Peuples Noirs bookstore, Mongo Beti surprised me by offering me a beer, thereby submitting to the Cameroonian tradition of hospitality. Mongo Beti's generosity at that moment was another confirmation of the [End Page 146] graciousness he had shown me on many previous occasions, especially the positive responses he had given me the numerous times I had solicited his assistance. Nevertheless, since my first meeting with Mongo Beti, I have been—and remain so—overwhelmed because the meekness of his temperament is in such stark contrast to the incendiary prose of the militant author. The present commemorative volume, among other things, sheds precious light on the multidimensional personality of "l'un des combatants les plus acharnés de notre indépendance et de notre souveraineté" 'one of the fiercest fighters for our independence and our sovereignty' (Ntonfo 254). Gustave Massiah, Mongo Beti's companion in the trenches of the anti-imperialist struggle, draws the contrast between "la gentillesse, la modestie, l'humilité et la prévenance d'Alexandre Biyidi et la violence flamboyante du pamphlétaire Mongo Beti" 'the kindness, modesty, humility, and thoughtfulness of Alexandre Biyidi, and the flamboyant violence of the pamphleteer Mongo Beti' (133). It is Bessora who attempts to find a rational explanation for this paradox: "La douceur du regard de cet homme si virulent dans ses textes me frappe. Et je pense: c'est logique, la violence est la réponse des tendres à la brutalité du monde" 'The sweetness of the face of this man who is so virulent in his writings strikes me. And I think: It's logical, because violence is the response of the tender-hearted to the world's brutality' (42). The dissidence that informs Mongo Beti's writings is situated in a long tradition of what the Cameroonian novelist PatriceNganang calls "l'intelligence critique du peuple camerounais qui aura toujours su lire dans les diverses formes de la réalité qui vivait le Cameroun une usurpation répétée, une illégalité instituée" 'the critical intelligence of the Cameroonian people that has always been able to read in the diverse forms of reality that Cameroon has experienced a repeated usurpation, an institutionalized illegality' (269), from the German colonial regime to the de facto imposition of the structures of French and English colonization, to the postindependence regimes. The militant path of this novelist, chronicler, and essayist has been governed by one obsession: the quest for the dignity of black African peoples: "Foi de primitif, j'atteste que Mongo Beti ne ressemble à aucun autre. Mongo Beti est un cas à part: c'est le loup solitaire, le dernier des Mohicans, le plus beau de nos factieux, la fraction saine de notre cerveau malade. Il émerge d'une autre galaxie, répond d'une tout autre ère géologique" 'On simple faith, I swear that Mongo Beti is like none other. Mongo Beti is a unique case: he's the lone wolf, the last of the Mohicans, the best of the seditious, the healthy part of our sick brain. He has emerged from another galaxy, and responds to a totally different geological era' (29). Monénembo's homage is the result of a life-altering experience caused by Remember Ruben, the novel he read at a turbulent and crucial period in African history that witnessed Lumumba being assassinated, the children of Sharpville sprayed by gunfire, the macabre parade of a dying colonialism in the streets of Algiers, and the angry outburst against apartheid that eventually led to Mandela's imprisonment in a cell on Robben Island. Writing, for Mongo Beti, became a dangerous activity that placed his life in jeopardy nearly every single moment. Therefore, fleeing Africa in order to save Africa was to becomethe temporary tactic for this "contemporain capital" 'first-rate contemporary,' a strategy illustrated in the affair of Main basse sur le Cameroun and the exalting adventure of the publication Peuples Noirs/Peuples Africains. Remember Mongo Beti is an intellectual, ideological, and emotional veillée that brings together four generations...

Évaluation du trouble de la personnalité sadique en relation avec la psychopathie auprès de patients internés en hôpital psychiatrique sécuritaire

The population was composed of 76 male patients (mean age=36.14). All of them having committed a violent offence indexed in their institutional file: (1) sexual offences on children; (2) rapes of adult women; (3) homicide offence; and (4) assaults and batteries. TPS was defined by the following 8 diagnostic criteria as described in DSM III-R: 1) has used physical cruelty or violence for the purpose of establishing dominance in a relationship; 2) humiliates or demeans people in the presence of others; 3) has treated or disciplined someone under his or her control unusually harshly; 4) is amused by, or takes pleasure in, the psychological or physical suffering of others; 5) has lied for the purpose of harming or inflicting pain on others 6) gets other people to do what he or she wants by frightening them 7) restricts the autonomy of people with whom he or she has a close relationship; 8) is fascinated by violence, weapons, martial arts, injury, or torture. These criteria were assessed from (a) clinical and institutional files and (b) clinical collateral informations. TPS assessment was conducted by two -trainees in clinical psychology (kappa=0.87; n=20). The assessment of psychopathy was conducted according to the guidelines of the Hare psychopathy checklist manual (PCL-R, 1991, 2003): coding of clinical and institutional files and semi-structural clinical interviews. The PCL-R is mainly composed by 2 factors: factor 1 "Emotional detachment" describing the core psychological component of psychopathy, and factor 2 "Chronically antisocial factor" reflecting behavioral instability and antisocial life style. The total cut-off score for the inclusion of the diagnosis was 25. The prevalence of TPS in the population was 25% (n=19) and is congruent with the large range described in the literature (0.5 to 33%). The most frequent criteria were 6 (gets other people to do what he or she wants by frightening them), 1 (has used using physical cruelty or violence for the purpose of establishing dominance in a relationship) and 3 (has treated or disciplined someone under his or her control unusually harshly). The most sensible criteria were: 7 (restricts the autonomy of people with whom he or she has a close relationship), 8 (major interest for violence) and 4 (pleasure in the psychological or physical suffering of others). The most specific criteria were: 3 (has treated or disciplined someone under his or her control unusually harshly), 6 (gets other people to do what her or she wants by frightening them), 4 (takes pleasure in the psychological or physical suffering of others) and 1 (has used physical -cruelty or violence for the purpose of establishing dominance in a relationship). As concerns psychopathy, the mean of factor 1, factor 2 and the PCL-R total scores were 7.40, 9.08 and 18.67. Thus, 38% of patients were considered as "low psychopaths", 36% were considered as "moderate psychopaths" and 26% were considered as "high psychopaths". In spite of few significant positive correlations between some TPS and PCL-R criteria, TPS diagnosis was not significantly correlated with factors 1, factor 2, nor with total score of the PCL-R. The mean psychopathy total score did not differ between sadistic and non-sadistic patients. Moreover, a two ways ANOVA comparing PCL-R factors 1 and 2 did not reveal any differences between sadism and non-sadism. Again, these comparisons did not support hypothesis of a strong association between TPS and psychopathy.

Infectious disease in Haiti. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and social inequalities.

More than 50 years after the introduction of chemotherapy for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), the disease is far from being under control. Among curable infectious diseases, TB remains the number‐one killer—each year, 2 million people still die of the disease and 8.4 million more fall ill (World Health Organization (WHO), 2002a). And future projections are grim. Fewer than half of all TB cases are diagnosed, and of those that are, fewer than 30% have access to the care recommended by the WHO (WHO, 2002a). The increase in TB worldwide is due, in part, to the expansion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (WHO, 2001): at least one‐third of people with HIV die of TB (WHO, 2002a). HIV/AIDS now causes more than 3 million deaths per year (UNAIDS, 2002). More than 90% of HIV/AIDS deaths and new infections occur in poor countries where less than 5% of those who need antiretroviral treatment have access to these therapies (WHO, 2002b). If we consider that, on average, 10% of people with HIV need antiretroviral treatment, the 5% figure comes down to less than 1% in sub‐Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the pandemic. > The social contexts in which our patients became infected are an integral part of their stories Large‐scale social forces, such as racism, sexism, political violence, poverty and other social inequalities, are rooted in historical and economic processes and sculpt the distribution and outcome of HIV/AIDS and TB. We refer to these social forces as ‘structural violence’ (Castro & Farmer, 2002, 2003a,b; Farmer, 2003), which predisposes the human body to pathogenic vulnerability by shaping the risk of infection and subsequent disease reactivation. After infection, structural violence also determines who has access to diagnostics and effective therapy. Drugs that could stop or slow down these epidemics, such as …

Fathers, others: The sacrificial victim in Freud, Girard, and Levinas

This paper derives from an interest in murder. This interest began through reading fictional narratives which ceaselessly stage and restage scenes of murder; but it has also become clear that a range of theoretical texts are no less preoccupied with the basic question, ‘Why kill?’ (see Davis, 2000). In particular, the three theorists I shall discuss here, Freud, Girard and Levinas, directly address the question of murder, its causes and consequences. In each case, the theoretical question turns out to depend upon a minimal core narrative in which the stakes of murder are crystallized; rival theoretical accounts are thus also bound up in a competition of stories. As this paper traces a common concern from Freud's Totem and Taboo, through Girard's La Violence et le sacré, to Levinas's Totalité et infini, the question ‘Why kill?’ gets entangled with the dynamics of storytelling and the issue of what it means to do theory.

'Stop la Violence': Responses to delinquency and urban violence in contemporary France

'Stop la Violence': Responses to delinquency and urban violence in contemporary France

Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Searching for the middle ground in clinical practice.

Abstract This paper briefly examines the debate regarding adult of childhood sexual abuse and suggests a reasoned clinical response. The perspective related to memories of abuse, as well as that of advocates of memories, are considered. It is concluded that although there is considerable rhetoric on topic, there is little definitive information to support one position or the other. A middle ground perspective, that recognizes both the legitimacy of childhood abuse and its negative influences, as well as the possibility of poor clinical practice leading to false reports of abuse, is advocated. Implications of middle ground perspective for clinical practice, training and research are discussed.Resume Cet article examine brievement le debat sur la facon dont les adultes se rappellent de la violence sexuelle qu'ils ont subie etant enfants et suggere une intervention raisonnee. La perspective des partisans de la theorie des > et celle des tenants de la theorie des souvenirs retrouves sont considerees. L'article conclut que, bien que ce sujet suscite un debat anime, il existe peu de preuves absolues pour soutenir l'une ou l'autre de ces positions. Il defend une perspective intermediaire, qui reconnait l'existence de mauvais traitements infliges a des enfants et leur incidence negative, ainsi que la possibilite de mauvaises methodes menant a de fausses declarations. Les repercussions de cette position pour la pratique, la formation et la recherche sont examinees.The literature on of childhood sexual abuse reveals a polarized debate. One side insists that of childhood sexual abuse are rarely, if ever, lost. According to perspective, recovered after a period of amnesia, are by definition almost always false. The reasoning continues that these memories are perpetrated by the suggestions of misguided, unskilled or possibly unscrupulous practitioners, who exert their influence on unsuspecting clients, sometimes destroying previously happy families in the process. The other side counters that are for real events that have been blocked due to past trauma and vulnerability. They claim that of childhood sexual abuse can appear many years after the event, in and out of therapy, when individuals feel emotionally supported. According to side, efforts to deny the truth of childhood sexual abuse or these are perpetrated by the accused (usually fathers), whose vicious attacks on the professional integrity of therapists are really efforts to protect themselves and deny personal responsibility.One side sets out to protect alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse; the other side sets out to protect potentially innocent parents from faulty accusations of abuse. Each side has its rhetoric, its tales and its warnings. Each side has responded to the claims of its opposition in an adversarial fashion. As Bloom (1995) observes, this is not [only] an intellectual war, but a war that is being fought in the media, in the courtroom and in legislative chambers (p. 274). Clinical practice has come under scrutiny. Courtois (1995) observes that while reconciliation and collaboration are sorely needed it appears that old debates and turf battles (both inside and outside of psychology) have been resurrected and applied to already complex and controversial issue (p. 295). She notes that in response to debate, U.S. state and federal legislation has been prepared that could seriously restrict the practice of psychotherapy.How can the clinician understand and learn from polarized conflict? How can the discipline and profession of psychology respond to the dialogue? This paper sets out to review the history of the debate, examine the rhetoric, summarize the evidence, and propose some solutions for informed clinical practice. …

Accuracy of 3 brief screening questions for detecting partner violence in the emergency department

Malgré plusieurs dispositifs pour protéger les femmes victimes de violences conjugales, la répétition de la violence d’une génération à l’autre et l’énigme suscitée par le maintien du lien de certaines femmes à leur partenaire violent nous ont conduites à étudier les déterminants et la dynamique psychiques à l’œuvre dans leur couple.Au cours d’entretiens de recherche, nous avons sollicité le témoignage de femmes séparées de leur partenaire du fait de ces violences. Nous avons effectué une analyse de contenu et de l’énonciation pour repérer les enjeux inconscients à l’œuvre dans leur histoire conjugale et familiale.Au-delà de l’intériorisation d’éléments culturels d’identités de genre, la répétition des violences subies vise à réélaborer les données infantiles.Ces résultats indiquent la nécessité de croiser prises en charge sociétale et individuelle dans la prévention des violences conjugales.Despite the several devices to protect women victims of domestic violence, the recurrence of violence from one generation to the following one, and the enigmatic noticing that some women maintain the link with their violent partners led us to study the psychic factors and dynamics at work in their relationship.Clinical research was conducted with 26 women victims of domestic violence. The women interviewed had all been separated from their partners for some months. Most of them were fragile both from the point of view of their social integration and of their mental state. We were able to request interviews with them through the associations that support them, and we guaranteed them their anonymity. We conducted an analysis of the content and of the form of their answers to identify unconscious issues at work in their conjugal and family history.We can find in the history of these women an active process in the transgenerational transmission of violence: if the individual and family history includes the internalization of cultural elements of gender identities and relationships between genders and generations, continued violence and recurrence of violence would have to be understood as an attempt to stage again and/or to elaborate childhood experiences.The study highlights the need to think the treatment of domestic violence through two main methods of remediation: at the societal level through education in gender equality, and at the individual level, through a psychotherapeutic support for women, including in their link with their children, that would allow them to solve their childhood history; the impulsive force of which can defy death.

Gender Issues in the Implementation and Evaluation of a Violence-Prevention Curriculum

After two years of a three-year evaluation of a violence-prevention program implemented in two elementary schools, it appears that the program may produce a decline in conflictevents and offer students, as well as teachers, options for conflict resolution. But the prescribed resolution skills and strategies may be most effective in decreasing forms of conflict most common among male students; the more covert, less physical behaviour typical of conflict involving female students may be more difficult for observers to detect and less likely to be targeted for resolution through program strategies. Consequently, male students may appear responsible for an inordinate number of conflicts, whereas female peers may be engaging in conflicts that observers neither detect nor mediate. D’apres l’evaluation, au bout de la deuxieme annee, d’un programme de trois ans visant a prevenir la violence dans deux ecoles primaires, il semble que ce programme peut reduire le nombre de situations conflictuelles et offrir aux eleves ainsi qu’aux enseignants des options en matiere de resolution de conflits. Toutefois, les competences et strategies pronees reussissent peut-etre mieux a diminuer les types de conflits les plus courants chez les eleves de sexe masculin; les comportements plus secrets, moins physiques, qui sont typiques des conflits mettant en jeu des filles, peuvent etre plus difficiles a deceler et donc moins susceptibles de faire l’objet de strategies de resolution. Les eleves de sexe masculin peuvent ainsi sembler responsables d’un nombre excessif de conflits alors que leurs pairs de sexe feminin sont peut-etre engagees dans des conflits que les observateurs ne voient pas et ne cherchent pas a regler. To provide more students with effective conflict-resolution strategies and skills, many elementary schools are implementing resolution models such as Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum (Committee for Children, 1992a, 1992b). A three-year study in two Winnipeg elementary schools is generating evidence that adoption of the Second Step curriculum may lead to a decline in student conflicts and provide students and teachers with new options for dealing with conflicts. However, another finding of the study is that male and female students tend to engage in dissimilar forms of conflict. There are also indications that unless conflict resolution strategies and skills prescribed by the Second Step curriculum are used meticulously, teachers may be more likely to focus attention and instruction on the types of conflicts most frequently engaged in by male students. Furthermore, it is evident from this study that any assessment of Second Step’s efficacy in reducing conflict must recognize both overt and covert forms of conflict.

Difficultés de la demande de consultation psychologique chez l'enfant

L’objectif de cette recherche est d’examiner l’effet de l’exposition à la violence conjugale des enfants sur la présence de symptômes de stress post-traumatique et d’analyser le rôle de la perception de la menace et du sentiment de blâme.Quarante-six enfants âgés de 6 à 12 ans ont été interrogés ainsi que leurs mères, par le biais de questionnaires. Le degré d’exposition à la violence conjugale a été évalué par l’enfant, à l’aide du Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC, Grych et al., 1992), et par la mère avec le Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus et al., 1996). Concernant la perception de la menace et le sentiment de blâme, les enfants ont répondu à deux sous-échelles du CPIC et ont renseigné le Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1989) afin d’analyser la présence de symptômes traumatiques.Nos résultats indiquent que le degré d’exposition à la violence conjugale prédit la perception de la menace, le sentiment de blâme et le symptôme de l’anxiété. Le sentiment de blâme est en lien avec la dépression et la colère de l’enfant. Enfin, le rôle modérateur de la perception de la menace a été mis en évidence sur les symptômes de la colère et de dissociation celui du sentiment de blâme sur le symptôme de stress post-traumatique.L’effet du sentiment de blâme et de menace sur la présence de symptômes de stress post-traumatique doit être pris en compte pour accompagner les enfants exposés à la violence conjugale.The aim of this study is to examine the effect of children's exposure to domestic violence on the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms and to analyze the role of threat perception and feeling of self-blame. We suppose that the more the children and mothers tell us that the domestic violence has been serious and frequent, the more the children will feel guilty for its appearance and will consider it as threatening. We postulate that the children's interpretation of domestic violence, through the perception of threat and self-blame, will lead them to show more post-traumatic stress symptoms when the children perceive a big threat and blame themselves for the violence. Finally, we consider the moderating role of threat perception and feeling of self-blame on the connection between domestic violence and post-traumatic stress symptoms of children.Forty-six children (26 girls and 20 boys) aged from 6 to 12 years old, living in shelters in France, were interviewed as well as their mothers, completing different questionnaires. The degree of exposure to domestic violence was assessed by the child using the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC, Grych et al., 1992) and the mother with the Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus et al., 1996). For the threat perception and the feeling of blame, the children completed two CPIC subscales and filled in the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1989) to analyze the presence of traumatic symptoms (anxiety, depression, anger, post-traumatic stress, dissociation).Our findings show that the degree of exposure to domestic violence presages threat perception, the feeling of self-blame and the symptom of anxiety. The feeling of self-blame is linked to the child's depression and anger. Finally, the moderating role of threat perception was noticed on the symptoms of anger and dissociation and the feeling of self-blame on the symptom of post-traumatic stress. So, when domestic violence becomes serious and frequent and if the child does not perceive violence as threatening, then the symptom of anger increases. In the same way, when violence gets more important and the child has a low perception of the threat, the dissociation symptom score increases. Finally, when the child feels guilty for the violence, the more the violence is frequent and severe, the less the child shows post-traumatic stress symptoms.The effect of the feelings of self-blame and threat on the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms must be taken into account in order to help children exposed to domestic violence.

History and the Paraclete

The Ecumenical ReviewVolume 35, Issue 1 p. 3-16 History and the Paraclete René Girard, René Girard René Girard is Andrew B. Hammond professor of French language, literature and civilization at Stanford University, California, USA. In his study on the origin and the mechanisms of violence (La violence et le sacré, Grasset, 1972; English translation, Violence and the Sacred, Johns Hopkins University, 1978), he advanced a new approach to the entire field of human sciences. In a later publication (Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde, Grasset, 1978) he extended his approach to the study of the biblical text, thus in effect proposing a new principle of biblical interpretation which could have far-reaching theological implications. The present article is taken from the chapter of his most recent work, Le bouc émissaire, also published by Grasset (1982) and is reprinted here in English with the permission of the author and the publisher. While the argument presented in this chapter can be understood in isolation, a few footnotes have been added for clarification which it is hoped may stimulate ER readers to explore Girard's approach further. The text has been translated by the WCC Language Service.Search for more papers by this author René Girard, René Girard René Girard is Andrew B. Hammond professor of French language, literature and civilization at Stanford University, California, USA. In his study on the origin and the mechanisms of violence (La violence et le sacré, Grasset, 1972; English translation, Violence and the Sacred, Johns Hopkins University, 1978), he advanced a new approach to the entire field of human sciences. In a later publication (Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde, Grasset, 1978) he extended his approach to the study of the biblical text, thus in effect proposing a new principle of biblical interpretation which could have far-reaching theological implications. The present article is taken from the chapter of his most recent work, Le bouc émissaire, also published by Grasset (1982) and is reprinted here in English with the permission of the author and the publisher. While the argument presented in this chapter can be understood in isolation, a few footnotes have been added for clarification which it is hoped may stimulate ER readers to explore Girard's approach further. The text has been translated by the WCC Language Service.Search for more papers by this author First published: January 1983 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1983.tb03544.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume35, Issue1January 1983Pages 3-16 RelatedInformation

The Missing Mother: The Oedipal Rivalries of Rene Girard

Since the publication of Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure (Tr. by Yvonne Freccero (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1965), French original: Mensonge romantique et verit6 romanesque (Paris: Grasset, 1961)), Rene Girard has been tirelessly expanding and expounding his theory of triangular or mimetic desire. In this first book he claims that triangular desire is the key to a true understanding of the novels of authors like Cervantes, Stendhal, Dostoevsky and Proust. In his next major theoretical work, Violence and the Sacred (Tr. by Patrick Gregory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1977), French original: La violence et le sacr6 (Paris: Grasset, 1972)) he transports his triangle into the fields of anthropology and religion. Girard now maintains that triangular desire can explain all sacrificial rituals and religious beliefs concerning victims and scapegoats. At the end of Violence and the Sacred he promises further developments of his theory, and he does not fail us: in 1978 he publishes Des choses cachees depuis ia fondation du monde: Recherches avec Jean-Michel Oughourlian et Guy Lefort (Paris: Grasset, 1978). Here Girard reads the Old and the New Testaments in the light of his theories and also seeks to prove that his insight into the nature of desire is considerably superior to Freud's. By this point, Girard is laying claim to total and universal validity for his theories.

Father-Daughter Incest

Father-Daughter Incest

Violence and Brotherhood: a case of ‘trahison des clercs’

If I understand the French expression of the title correctly, the word ‘clercs’ does not primarily refer to the clergy but to those that in olden days were the philosophers, the writers, the scribblers and the gabblers, and no doubt some clergy came under this heading. Now there are few problems so bluntly omnipresent and so impractically approached by the intellectuals as violence.I have three books in front of me, one dealing with brotherhood, one with peace, and a symposium on violence. All three are connected since peace can only come from brotherhood and will never come at all as long as our world is dominated by violence. We are all Brothers, by Fr Louis Evely (Burns & Oates, 1967, 15s.), puzzles me. Apparently his books sell on the continent by the 100,000 and are translated into ten languages. Yet, the treatment of the theme of brotherhood is wholly that of a talk given at a retreat in the old style of a nice, comforting, pleasant relationship between a somewhat domestic God and a simple-minded Christian leading himself up the garden path in the private garden of his private soul. One respects the intention but it is difficult to take such spiritual glibness seriously. The next book is Building Peace, by Fr Dominique Pire, O.P. (a Corgi Book, 6s.), which is somewhat clumsily put together by Dr Dricot, but it is honest and faces some facts. I shall return to this later. The third book is called La Violence (Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1967, 12 Frs). It is a collection of papers read at the Semaine des Intellectuels Catholiques in February last year.