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Trauma the Teacher
Trauma teaches valuable lessons to its survivors.
Did you ever notice that people don't change their ways unless something drastic happens to them? Even the best of intentions seem unable to change our bad habits. Often times, people who suffer some serious illness or an accident seem to suddenly acquire added will power. The key is the trauma. Habits develop patterns that tend to become "hard programed" into our bio-computer. These habits resist change and become a seemingly permanent part of our personality. Trauma acts like an "access code" to a computer; it opens up the "habitual behavior" program to new input or revision. The fact that there has been a trauma indicates to the inner "intelligence" that there is a problem that must be dealt with in the "real" world. This problem might require the modification of some of the basic programs.
This internal intelligence has built a model of the outside world based on the information it has gathered from its many sources. It must learn as much as it can about any supposed danger so it heightens the senses, opens emergency memory storage and generally alerts the organism to its deepest levels. What we refer to as "stress" works some of these same panic circuits.
The habit patterns that one develops throughout life are very important to one's security and peace of mind. Constant trauma and/or stress can eat away at the basic operational programs as the inner intelligence tries to make the changes that will restore balance to the system. This inner "board of directors" can get very confused if too many of their routines are interrupted. At this stage, if an organized system of behavior is presented that brings with it some gratification, the behavior will be readily assimilated into the basic behavior patterns of the individual. Trauma has been used effectively to re-program ordinary citizens into soldiers for centuries. This system goes as follows:
- Move subject to new environment.
- Prevent subject from using habitual routines.
- Introduce trauma and/or stress.
- Require the performance of new routines related to the desired behavior.
This army "training" does more than teach the skills necessary for the performance of the desired duties, it conditions the responses of the subject to do things they would not ordinarily do. The success of this kind of brainwashing is extremely high. Even as influential as post hypnotic suggestion appears to be in behavior modification, it seems difficult to get someone to do something against their will, like murder. However, citizen soldiers have been murdering by the millions, like zombies. The system works.
It isn't just patriotic fervor, either. I was drafted into the army in 1963. I entered as a stone pacifist, before the days of much "conscientious objection". I was determined that they could do what they wanted with me, they weren't going to change my beliefs. They didn't, I thought, but within nine months of my induction I was a paratrooper, taking my turn as part of an "alert unit" that could be air dropped anywhere in the World within 24 hours to stop trouble. The foolishness of my position didn't hit me until one day in 1965, when we were handed books on how to speak Vietnamese and told not to leave the barracks.
They also taught us how to resist brainwashing by the enemy. It occurred to me that it was the same defense system that had been used by the few recruits that I had seen make it through basic training without being made into soldiers. They would not follow orders and the Army finally just had to let them go as "unfit" to be reprogrammed.
The way to resist the training/brainwashing, is to concentrate on the performance of your regular habitual routines, while refusing to adopt any new ones.
Learning Process
We have a smaller version of that "trauma teaching" going on in our regular learning process. You may have heard of how it works in regards to TV commercials.
- Build ANXIETY.
- Reach CRISIS.
- Product brings RESOLUTION to the crisis...forever after.
This little routine is a sort of a "glitch identification" program that searches out problems that may affect the organism and puts some effort into solving them. We are supposed to notice things that aren't "just right" and worry about them. The human animal does this endlessly. The idea is to build up some pressure, some "juice" for changing the status quo programs. When the ANXIETY builds to the point that the poor sucker just can't stand it anymore, CRISIS, he tries something new, which is always risky. If this new behavior brings RESOLUTION, then it is incorporated into the "program file" and marked SUCCESSFUL. This system operates just below our consciousness most of the time. This program starts when we are very young and we are always updating and revising it in order to be SUCCESSFUL.
Anxiety is the searching phase where some shape is given to the problem. There is speculation and some worry, and the tension builds. We are revved up and ready to go. This same process is used by writers to give the most impact to their work. The elements of a plot follow this pattern. At the crisis, the hero, the "white knight" rides in to save the day. When the nervous system resolves its crisis, it "dumps" the pent up anxiety and tension and restores the system to balance, ready for a new crisis. In this "aftermath" our behavior gets soft and pliable for a while, allowing revised programs to be tested and integrated.
Wilderness or survival seminars are an example of the process in action. Whether the subjects are management trainees or juvenile delinquents, the induced trauma can produce profound changes in the individual.
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