When fantasy becomes reality

Jun 14, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

After the PNC lost the 1992 elections – a loss which then party leader, Desmond Hoyte, conceded publicly – one of its leaders had a bout of emotional debilitation. The PNC was forced to dispatch another leader to help this person deal with the traumatic effects of the loss of the elections.
Dealing with loss, whether personal or political, carries the risk of emotional trauma. Sometimes, the symptoms are not visibly manifested but at other times the victim displays classical symptoms of emotional trauma.
On the morning after the elections of 2nd March 2020, word seeped out to a supporter of the APNU+AFC that the PPP/C had won the elections. This young lady appeared in a social media post. Her social media post showed the full range of emotions associated with trauma. Initially, she was calm. Then suddenly she broke down in tears and then, almost immediately, threw an angry tantrum, composed herself for a few seconds, then began lashing out at persons, then resorted to threats. Outburst which runs the gamut of human emotions is a classical symptom of trauma.
A second symptom of emotional trauma is irrational thinking, or what yesterday’s Kaieteur News editorial referred to as cognitive dissonance. A person who is emotionally traumatized often cannot think straight. The person’s judgment becomes impaired; logic is thrown out of the window and thoughts become sources of agony.
The emotionally traumatized person is irrational. He or she trips over their words and are contradictory. He or she is susceptible to making bizarre statements which demonstrate how far divorced they are from reality. Their arguments lack conviction and are incoherent. The person becomes an object of amusement and entertainment.
We are seeing quite a few such characters at the moment. They are holding stage in the theatre of the absurd. Nothing that is said makes any sense anymore.
If during a test match, one side sets the other side a target of 300 runs to win the match and that target is reached, it does not require any officiator to pronounce who is the winner. The presentation ceremony does not require any official declaration of the results.
The third symptom of emotional trauma is flights of fantasy. Fiction becomes fact. Imagination becomes reality. The fantasy can assume a life of its own. Illusion leads to delusion.
The imagining ghosts rising from the grave and voting or, persons bypassing the most rigorous of systems and voting or one in every five voters being fake, are all symptomatic of flights of fantasy associated with emotional trauma. The big lie is another. Here the most outrageous story is told and is repeated so often that the gullible actually begin to believe it because of the psychological effect of the repetition. This is called the illusory truth effect.
The fourth symptom of emotional trauma is the lashing out at persons. When you can lash out at international statesmen, when you can find no friends to support your twisted logic and are forced to resort to vitriolic attacks on others, you know that emotional trauma has stepped in and is consuming your thinking. Psychologists explain this as being employed when your goal is thwarted and you are forced to seek affirmation by attacking others to show that you are right and they are wrong. At times, it can involve anger and frustration, leading to destructive behaviour and absurdities.
The fifth symptom of emotional trauma is the refusal to accept responsibility for your action. Here the victim seeks to make others scapegoats rather than stand up and take his licks like a man. Excuses move from explanations to justifications.
Acceptance, like denial, of personal responsibility is learned behaviour. Many persons have not developed the habit of accepting that they are wrong. One of the most difficult traits is to admit you were wrong or concede to some shortcoming. The person who refuses to accept responsibility lives in denial, blaming others and avoiding solutions.
Emotional trauma can affect someone for the rest of his or her life. The emotionally traumatized need help, not condemnation. Spotting the signs and signals associated with emotional trauma is helpful if help is to be sought.
Sometimes these signs are obvious. But at other times, the trauma is seething below the surface. Who knows right now a traumatized person may be sitting right next to you.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News