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Power Theory - Force Of Will

Power Theory - Force Of Will

Ein gutes Durchschnittsalbum, das man sich gewiss schöner hören könnte, als es ist. Mit „Shadow Of Man“ von Power Theory könnte man anfangen, Freiwillige vor.  #CDReview #ForceofWill #PowerMetal #PowerTheory #PureSteelRecords #USMetal Read the full article

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Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is a serious problem impacting millions of people every year. Sexual violence is defined as any sexual attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion. Sexual violence may be physical, verbal, visual, or anything that forces an individual to engage in unwanted sexual contact. Every 92 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes, that victim is a child. 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. About 3% of American men, or 1 in 33, have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (Dutton, C. E., 2013).

Badour and Feldner (2016) discuss the evidence that has emerged concerning the common reaction to sexual victimization, linking it to Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Evidence suggests that disgust is more common than fear in the face of repeated exposure to sexual assault. This specific study filled the gap that exists between the disgust associated with distress and the anxiety that comes with repeated exposure (McPhail, 2016). These views on sexual violence are linked to the feminist and mainstream opinions on the issue of sexual violence, hence influencing the research that Badour and Feldner (2016) conducted.

Power Theory

Created by D. Keltner and colleagues, approach or inhibition theory assumes that having power and using power alters psychological states of individuals. The theory is based on the idea that most creatures react to environmental events in two habitual ways (Matthews, K.C., 2017). According to Foucault's comprehension of power, power is based on wisdom and makes use of knowledge; on the other hand, power multiplys intelligence by shaping it in accordance with its anonymous purpose. Power reproduces its own fields of exercise through understanding. (Hearn, J., 2009). Susan Brown Miller (1975) has been credited with the current view of rape as a power issue (Bevacqua, 2000). (Miller,1975) gave a comprehensive history on the aspect of rape not being about sex but men trying to dominate over and degrade women. The analysis resulted in a radical feminist consciousness among previous and future victims of rape, as females became more open and honest about their sexually-violent experiences. The connection between sexual aggression and male domination promoted a new-found openness among victims. Therefore, the feminist connection between power and sex came to influence the everyday language and view of sexual violence and the framing of the issue as per the law.

The first feminist act of breaking the silence was the replacement of the term rape with sexual assault. Feminists emphasized sexualized violence as a way of expanding the scope of the female experiences regarding sexual violence (McPhail, 2016). The research also explores a study by Amy Chasteen’s (2001) on the daily understandings of sexual assault and demonstrates their relevance to the growing feminist movement in the process. Furthermore, the law expanded the definition of sexual violence to cover the non-sexualized physical assaults, linking sexual violence to all other types of violence that are perpetrated against women. Regardless of the popularity of the power-not-sex theory by Miller (1975) and the way it influenced the feminist movement, it remained to be contentious among other feminists. There were tensions over the causes of sexual violence and the relationship to heterosexuality, which resulted in the “feminist sex war” (Bracewell, 2016). Other feminists such as Catherine McKinnon (1989) and Andrea Dworkin (1974) have suggested that rape and heterosexual sex cannot be separated, as sexual violence is embedded in the normative nature of heterosexuality. Contemporary feminists have also raised the issue on the difference between sex and violence (Gavey, 1999). Most authors have also noted that society has theorized the normalcy of male perpetration of sexual acts of violence that the regular male sexual behavior should also be recognized as sexual violence. McPhail (2016) further argues that a singular theory, the use of violence as the sole explanatory framework, may not account for the different ways that sexual violence occurs, and it cannot address the intersectionality of the oppression. However, regardless of the attitude on sexual violence, many feminists agree that it is a form of oppression that perpetuates the efforts of men to rally against women. Lastly, the article notes the prevalence of sexual assault, the regularity, and the ways in which it manifests.

Trauma

Authors Irina Anderson and Kathy Doherty, sought to establish the association between sexual assault and trauma. These two aspects have been credited to the rising state of feminism among women, especially victims of sexual assault. This effort is aimed at challenging the notion that sexual violence is a rare phenomenon despite its prevalence even in schools and colleges. Feminists and other researchers have been in continuous efforts to dispute the assumption of the insignificance of sexual violence and how it affects women (Anderson & Doherty, 2008). Twentieth century feminists, Ann Burgess and Lynda Holmstrom, were vocal against the trivialization of sexual violence by showing the negative ways that rape impacted the females who were affected, naming it the “rape trauma syndrome”. Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS) is the term given to the response most victims develop because of rape. It is vital to mention RTS is the natural response of a psychologically healthy person to rape trauma so symptoms do not constitute mental illness.

Drawing on the analysis of the article, Decou, Kaplan, Spencer and Lynch, (2018) used 164 female undergraduates who had been exposed to any form of sexual assault. Burgess and Holmstrom compared victims of rape to those of combat veterans and discovered that the kind of trauma that the victims of rape experienced was similar to that of veterans who went to war. As a result, sexual violence has been added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V (DSM5) as a factor of stress in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

The creation of a relationship between sexual violence and trauma has allowed for the growth of feminism among women, especially the victims, as there is a new realization that effects of sexual assault can be severe. The new-found realization of the impact of sexual violence diminishes the previous beliefs that it is ‘no big deal’ (Gavey & Schmidt, 2011; Tseris, 2013). Nevertheless, the relationship between sexual assault and trauma and its identity as a disorder has resulted in sexual violence being taken up individually and medically.

Heterosexism

Many studies have correlated poor mental health outcomes and external heterosexism and PTSD (Symanski and Moffitt, 2012). Earlier, Russel and Richards (2003) found that LGBT persons were prone to assault and discrimination and internalized heterosexism in response to legal proposals by the state aimed at limiting the rights of this demographic. People from the LGBT community who were committed to relationships internalized heterosexism than same-sex couples with legal protection (Riggle, Rostosky, and Horne, 2010). Szymanski and Mikorski (2016) concluded that internalized heterosexism resulted from internalized minority stressors that manifested in internalized heterosexism, emotional reticence, stigma consciousness, and sexual orientation concealment.

    Pansexual women are more likely to experience adverse mental health problems such as PTSD than straight women (Straub et al., 2018; Brown and Pantalone, 2011). Similarly, heterosexual individuals report less mental problems than LGBT individuals do (Marshal et al., 2019). Meyer, Scwartz and Frost (2008) posited that lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and transgender women (LGBT) were traumatized and victimized often on a national, community, and individual level. Brown and Pantalone (2011) found this demographic to be experiencing macro-aggression from people and institutions from early in life but heightened during adolescence. Robinson and Espelage (2013) found adolescent LGBT women to be at higher risk than heterosexual women of experiencing physical violence and bullying thus contributing to trauma.

    Living in a discriminatory environment can have its toll on people particularly heterosexuals. Women in this demographic were found to internalize the messages about their sexual identity thus developing minority stress (Meyer, 2003; Gerrity and Peterson, 2006). Peterson (2006) found the internalized homophobia and the minority stress to be highly correlated with low self-esteem as the heterosexual individuals took on negative views expressed about their sexuality. Although experiencing trauma does not necessarily result in the development of PTSD (Nievergelt et al., 2018), sexual assault and discrimination result in higher rates of PTSD relative to other traumatic experiences (Gold et al., 2009). Furthermore, women develop higher levels of PTSD compared to men after exposure to traumatic events (Simmons and Granvold, 2005; Kubiak, 2004; Snipes et al., 2017). Further research is crucial given the high rate of sexual attacks on LGBT women, the pathogenic influence of the assault, and the vulnerability to developing PTSD. It is essential to research issues that influence LGBT women to recover from sexual assault and consequently reduce or prevent the development of PTSD.

Moral Concerns

    Domestic violence and violence between couples cause traumatic experiences on those involved and other dependents (Merssermith et al., 2017). Despite the growing awareness of the vice, the practice continues to increase. Reasons for the growth of this practice results from the difficulty in treating the perpetrators (Christensen, 2018). The authors posit that the devastating effects of violence against one’s partner on children and the society coupled with the limited success in treating abusers develop the need to identify effective means of treatment.

    Violence against one’s partner can be described using the attachment theory, also known as the psychodynamic theory (Keiski, et al., 2018). Psychosocial theory, frustrations theory, and interpersonal theory further explain the violence (Bowman et al., (2015); Lindgren, (2017); Bryan e al., (2017). However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2009), domestic violence results from cultural and social norms or expectations of behavior within a specific social or cultural setting. Often unspoken, these norms offer unique standards, acceptable or inappropriate, that coordinate our intersections with others (Durlauf and Blume, 2008). The preference to conform to others expectations thus gives rise to the cultural and social norms (Lewis, 2002). While social and cultural norms do not necessarily correspond with an individual’s attitude or beliefs, they bring about the debate over feminism and the trauma the violence causes.

    The treatment of domestic violence currently is by group format, and then followed by couple therapy (Tseris, 2013). However, while treatment works, Lindstrom and Eriksson (2011) recommend that besides medicine and psychology, medical professionals should also devise ways of prevention. Prevention is indeed key in physical health, but on emotional health, medical experts tend to relegate or postpone thus allowing for the development of PTSD (Tseris, 2013). In conventional treatment, the length of treatment varies from one week to one year and has no clearly established a correlation between time and treatment (Gondolf, 2002). With that, women were found to be helpless before, during the violence and treatment. Based on the social cycle theory, Walker (1999) developed a hypothesis that abusive relationships once established are repetitive. The author posited that helplessness, trauma and possible development of PTSD was dependent on how long the individual stayed in the abusive relationship and how “helpless” they were. The cycle also known as Battered Women Syndrome, consists of recurrent violence, avoidance of people, activities, and emotions, and hyper-arousal or hyper-vigilance as well as disrupted interpersonal relationships (Rakovec, 2014).

    During treatment, group treatment, though ineffective, was found to be better than no treatment (Gondolf, 1997). However, men that completed the treatment phase were likely never to repeat compared to men who never attended counseling (Rosenfeld, 1992). Nonetheless, women are the most vulnerable due to the development of PTSD. However, not all women exposed to domestic violence develop PTSD. Coker et al., 2002; Thompson et al., (2000), found some women to be resilient to developing trauma. For those with PTSD, Bisson, and Andrew (2007) suggests that they should undergo psychotherapy treatment and receive empirical support. Also, a new treatment that includes exposure-based intervention has proven effective against PTSD (Resick et al., 2002; Resick and Schnicke, 1992). This treatment was developed specifically for victims of rape and sexual assaults but is being used to treat people with trauma.

Shame and Disgust

    According to Campbell, Dworkin, and Cabral (2009), sexual assault increases the risk of developing PTSD. La Bash and Papa (2014) found the same to result to shame, while Ullman and Peter-Hagene (2014) correlated sexual assault to adverse social reaction. Øktedalen et al. (2014) defined trauma-related shame as negative evaluation of the self in the context of trauma. (Following, DeCou et al. (2017) linked trauma-related shame among victims of sexual assault to PTSD. However, Rogers et al. (2017) provided evidence to prove the association between general shame, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and suicide risk. Although the study was conducted among veterans, the author concluded that shame was indirectly related to suicide via thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. However, there was a relationship between trauma-related shame and sexual assault. Badour and Feldner (2016) describe disgust as a rejection or revulsion response aimed at distancing an individual. Disgust follows from a traumatic event especially those involving sexual assault (Badour et al., 2013). Resick et al., (2008) posited that disgust offered insight into understanding PTSD for its unique cognitive, behavioral, psychological, and neurobiological activities. These attributes distinguish it from other emotions such as sadness, fear, and anger (Izard, 2007).

    Following a traumatic event, victims are exposed to vomit, blood, and other bodily fluids that elicit disgust (Aunger & Rabie, 2004). They may also face death, violations, disease, or betrayal which can also cause disgust (Simpson et al., 2006). Within this context, disgust transfers to trauma. This type of conditioning further facilitates the unique qualities that distinguish disgust from other emotions (Olatunji et al., 2007). However, few studies link disgust to PTSD although scholars suggest that disgust based reactions following a traumatic event may result in cognitive-behavioral interventions (Jung and Steil, Jung, and Stangier, 2011; Badour and Feldner, 2018).

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The order of things

We learn sequentially. 1,2,3,4,5. First to last. Sunday through Monday. But life isn’t necessarily orderly at all. This ubiquitous establishment of sequential existence is dangerous. It has given us false hope of meeting, dating, marriage, children. Grammar school, high school, college, work. When, in truth, life is cyclical. Radical. Chaos! We feel inadequate, or mistaken, in breaking the said “order.” When man only invented this step-by-step system to quiet his mind. To keep the masses in line. It is, in fact, the annihilation of “self.” The tragic confinement of power. And we bow to it willingly.