(haga clic aquí para español)
As most of us are aware, in recent months Chile has been in convulsion as it undergoes massive social trauma. Huge protests on behalf of human rights began in October and quickly lead to violent repressive measures by the state. Human rights violations are being investigated by the UN, Amnesty International, Humans Rights Watch, and Chile’s Institute for the Defense of Human Rights.
IARPP’s general listserv, the Collective listserv, and the Colloquium have all contained messages from Chilean members, particularly Juan Francisco Jordan Moore, IARPP-Chile’s president, Victor Donas, and Carla Fischer, sharing vivid reports on many aspects of their external and internal experiences from the midst of their country’s rending sociopolitical upheaval.
Last month Carla wrote, “My country, my neighborhood, my daughters, friends and family are all immersed in the turmoil of protest. As a psychoanalyst, all my patients – regardless of their personal involvement – are all struck by the context. I myself end my days, that seem very long, trying to organize my thoughts [and] see urgent matters, such as how to collaborate with those traumatized – there are hundreds of young people who have lost their eyes due to police who fire straight to the face!!!” (Nov. 13 Colloquium post, reprinted here with Carla’s permission)
Victor Donas commented, “One aspect that should be strongly issued in all the current events is the use of state violence against peaceful civilians protesting. Rather, the state’s actions have included: not containing vandalism, the declaration of emergency state, the imposition of a curfew, and military troops with machine guns on the streets, untrained for this kind of situation. Many violations to human rights have been reported and not transmitted properly by media. This has been retraumatizing for many. In this madness I was hit by a policeman at the doorstep of my home for protesting against the curfew.”
“A democratic state,” Victor continued, “must not permit breaking democratic rules by its own government. I think that as relational mental health professionals, human rights violations is a line that should be ever present, and strong declarations condemning this kind of state behavior should be made wherever it happens.” (Oct. 27 post to the Collective, reprinted here with Victor’s permission)
With respect to Victor’s noting how the current upheaval is retraumatizing for Chileans, Juan Francisco Jordan shared his sense that there has been “more fear in people over 40 who lived through the dictatorship [under Pinochet]. There seems to be a generational gap. Most protesters are younger and have no fear.” (Oct. 30 post to the Collective, reprinted here with Juan Francisco’s permission)
I’ll close this report with another message from Juan Francisco, followed by the full statement he shared with our listserv on behalf of the entire IARPP-Chile Board, which constitutes a Declaration:
“Solidarity is needed to sustain the process of social reparation we are struggling for. We hope social healing will arrive for our hurt society but don’t know yet the paths it will travel. We expect that any path undertaken won’t leave in impunity the violation of human rights that have been witnessed, nor ignore the cry for social justice that we are hearing.” (Oct. 20 post to the listserv, reprinted here with Juan Francisco’s permission) – [M.A.]
Public Declaration from IARPP-Chile:
Beloved Community,
It is from the feelings of perplexity and preoccupation, emerging from the events that are currently unfolding in our country, that we offer a reflection we wish could enrich a dialogue.
It seems that for a long time, we normalized a way of relating with social reality. The unprecedented outbursts of social violence since the end of the dictatorship have put in front of our eyes a silent form of violence expressed in social oppression. The raw violence of the streets produces fear, anxiety, but the silent violence of a social and economic system produces alienation and depression. We know from what we have learnt in our discipline that hate emerges from an absence that goes beyond tolerance, and it is lived as humiliating. For us this is expressed today in the absence of a social fabric that can give all the communities and individuals of our country the feeling of sameness in front of the eyes of the other.
From this necessity of recognition we want to think: The need to have the resources to sustain old age with dignity; how to recover natural resources, as water, that belong to every Chilean; how to effectively protect the most fragile children of our society and not let them die in institutions that must protect them; how to ensure that our public hospitals, that work thankfully by the convictions of their workers, get larger resources than a field hospital; public transportation that stops making everyday life a calvary to go to work and back; the emergence of a State that must guarantee all citizens equitable rights to education and access to cultural expressions.
Collective suffering, voiceless till now, for which all of us social subjects have been deaf, has made itself to be heard and interpellates our thinking about what, until now, we haven´t listened to.
We are a group of professionals in the field of mental health united under the conviction that in human relationality, in the co-construction of bonds of mutual recognition both familiar and social, are the conditions that make us emerge as human in its most profound sense. Chile has in the veins of its history not only the traces of pain, but also hope: the multiple reconstructions and the illusion of new dawns; the capacity to turn destructive violence into constructive affirmation of the rights that dignifies us all. The first fundamental step is the recognition of what is happening. It requires deep listening, a humble dialogue towards a new social pact, a new conception of what we are as citizens, and an inclusive addition of communities joined in the notion of a country.
As IARPP-Chile we reaffirm and confirm our commitment to all that makes us human, and from the little space we inhabit, our full disposition to collaborate in this endeavor that is a call for everyone to rethink who we are as a country.
The Board of IARPP-Chile:
Juan Francisco Jordan, Victor Doñas, Leila Jorquera, Jaime Landa, Luz María Parada,
Analia Stutmann & Germán Morales
Juan Francisco Jordan
Email Juan Fracisco Jordan
VIctor Doñas
Email Victor Doñas
Luz María Parada
Email Luz María Parada
(click here for English)
Querida Comunidad,
Es desde la perplejidad y preocupación suscitadas por los acontecimientos, que en este momento se están desarrollando en nuestro país, que ofrecemos una reflexión que esperamos pueda enriquecerse en el diálogo. Al parecer, durante mucho tiempo, un modo de relacionarnos con la realidad social quedó normalizado. Los estallidos de violencia social, sin precedente desde el término de la dictadura, nos han puesto frente a una forma de violencia solapada que se despliega en la opresión social. La violencia cruda de las calles genera miedo, angustia y temor, pero la violencia silenciosa de un sistema social y económico opresivo genera enajenación y depresión. Sabemos, por los aportes de nuestra disciplina, que el odio surge frente a una ausencia de validación que va más allá de lo tolerable y que llega a ser humillante. Para nosotros, esto se expresa hoy en la ausencia de un tejido social que le de a todas las comunidades e individuos que conforman nuestro país un sentimiento de ser un igual a los ojos del otro.
Desde esta necesidad de validación del otro quisiéramos pensar: la necesidad de contar con los medios para sustentar una vejez digna, como recuperar los recursos naturales que pertenecen a todos los chilenos; como proteger realmente a los niños más frágiles de nuestra sociedad para que no mueran en los espacios destinados a acogerlos; como lograr que nuestros hospitales, que funcionan gracias a la convicción de sus trabajadores, cuenten con los recursos que no sean los de un hospital de campaña; un transporte público que no haga de la vida cotidiana un calvario para llegar y volver del trabajo, como generar un Estado que debiese poder garantizar el derecho ciudadano equitativo a una educación de calidad, como así también a la cultura.
El sufrimiento colectivo, hasta ahora sin voz, para el cual todos nosotros como sujetos sociales hemos sido sordos, se hizo oír y nos interpela a pensar en lo que, hasta ahora, no hemos escuchado.
Somos un grupo de profesionales de la salud mental unidos bajo la convicción de que, en la relacionalidad humana, en su capacidad de lograr vínculos de mutuo reconocimiento, tanto familiares como sociales, se encuentran las condiciones que nos hacen emerger como propiamente humanos. Chile tiene en las venas de su historia no sólo las huellas del dolor, sino también la esperanza, las reconstrucciones y la ilusión de los nuevos amaneceres, como así también la capacidad de transformar la violencia destructiva en la afirmación constructiva de los derechos que nos dignifican. El primer eslabón fundamental es el reconocimiento de lo que está ocurriendo y que requiere una escucha y un dialogo humildes para generar un nuevo pacto social, una nueva concepción de lo que somos como ciudadanos, y como suma inclusiva de comunidades agrupadas bajo la noción de un mismo país.
Como IARPP Chile confirmamos nuestro compromiso con aquello que nos hace humanos y desde el pequeño espacio que ocupamos, nuestra disposición a colaborar en esto que nos convoca. Volver a pensar quienes somos como país.
Directorio IARPP-Chile:
Juan Francisco Jordan, Victor Doñas, Leila Jorquera, Jaime Landa, Luz María Parada,
Analia Stutmann & Germán Morales
Juan Francisco Jordan
Email Juan Fracisco Jordan
VIctor Doñas
Email Victor Doñas
Luz María Parada
Email Luz María Parada
