The invisible Rape of Romania - The Psychology of Violence

by Andrzej Szczepanek - Relating to others in terms of cultivating an emotive relation with other humans or animals is man's and animal's most basic psychological need.

In this way, a mother relates to her child, and the child to his or her mother. A pet owner relates to his pet and the pet emotively reciprocates. A gay person affectively relates to the other one. An animal emotively relates to an animal. A child relates to a pet and the pet, in its own way, determined by the species' psychological make-up, relates to the child.

Is it a universal truth? Yes, it is.

A human being has an inalienable and a natural right to relate emotively to other living beings, be it humans or animals and as, universally, this relation constitutes the foundation of man's sense of security and well-being as well as the sense of his identity and as the character of this affective relation is the same regardless of whether this relation exists between humans or humans and animals, any one who perpetrates the violence-related trauma resulting from the suppression of this natural right should be held accountable as the violation of this right causes psychosomatic suffering equivalent to the violation of personal rights and freedoms.

As long as animals rights are an abstract entity in no way related to the general question of human rights and the trauma of violence, especially state-fomented violence and oppression also understood as socioeconomic marginalization, the concept of human rights will be dangerously flawed and discriminatory because it does not protect the rights of those humans who develop a strong and lasting affective relation with emotively responsive animals. It will also mean that the law tolerates discrimination against other human beings, which makes the law dangerously inconsistent and it polarizes the society ultimately destroying the moral foundation of the law by the relativization of violence, suffering and the psychological trauma of the victim. Not only are the human victims of this legal prejudice and violence psychologically traumatized and sometimes physically abused.

They are deprived of the very right to seek compensation for the violation of their basic and natural right to enjoy and develop emotive relations with other emotively responsive beings.

Violence, in particular, institutionalized and legalized violence promoted by a terror state destroys such emotive relations, which is synonymous with the heightened levels of primeval anxiety and functional changes of the brain.

We need to affectively relate to other living and feeling beings for protection in exactly the same biologically determined manner as the very young child relates to its mother because the mother-the child emotive quality of this relation affects in a fundamental way the character of our prospective emotive relations as we grow older.

The loving relation that we cherish and cultivate is the foundation on which our well-being and the sense of security rests. It helps us to relate to other more distant members of the community and finally, it enables us to function as social beings.

Not long ago, child abuse was endemic because of child's alleged inferiority to adults. Not long ago, slavery was no to be challenged and it constituted one of the most infamous foundations of the world's economy. We are still enslaving humans who stand up in the defence of animal rights because we restrict their freedoms and do not protect them from violence.

In fact, the corrupt Romanian government executing the policy of animal mass extermination targets millions of sensitive people who are being socially marginalized and who are deprived of any legal or constitutional protection. The corrupt nature of such a deviant, murderous and criminal policy advocated by the state bureaucrats makes one believe that those who oppose violence are acting against the law and it is them who deserve condemnation.

In this sense, Romania is a corrupt country and those who keep silent on the question of human rights in Romania including global institutions allegedly promoting democracy are guilty of tolerating the evil, the frenzy of killings and the human rights as well as social crisis.

Yes, Romania is in the grip of a social crisis and the international community simply ignores it.

The traumatic consequences of the state terror, in their most dramatic form, may include depressive anxiety, affective disorders, psychosomatic disorders and finally symptoms of clinical depression.

That is why the question of violence and trauma should be made an absolute priority dominating the agenda of any responsible dialogue and social policy.

Evidently, this is not so, as the case of Romania and the wide-spread violence demonstrate. In this respect, human rights are being universally violated and humans are subject to psychological rape because we are not fully aware of the ultimately destructive character of the violence-related trauma. We need to redefine the concept of violence within the broad psychological, moral, social, legal and political context and urgently raise the issue of accountability. 

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