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| CSMHI's methodology, nicknamed the Tree Model, has evolved to address such questions. Integral to its meetings is the development of concrete action scenarios in which specific issues are scrutinized by members of each group to reveal potential obstacles and their sources, including the psychological resistances that often lurk beneath seemingly straightforward issues. Ways to overcome obstacles are discussed and explored, interactive steps of action to address them effectively are outlined, and methods to implement action plans within larger groups and governments are analyzed. This cycle of action and discussion to resolve problems continues throughout the process. | 
In this drawing, we envision the Tree Model as it applies to Estonia. The roots of the tree are a Psychopolitical Diagnosis. Forming the trunk of the tree are Ongoing Psychopolitical Workshops, the Estonian Contact Group, and Local Community Groups. The three top branches represent the three local community groups: Mustvee, Klooga, and Mustamae. Other branches of the tree represent Personal Contacts in Estonia, Educational Activities, Media Involvement, Language Examinations, and Contacts with Influential "Foreigners." For more information on CSMHI's work in Estonia go to Experiment in Estonia. |
The methodology encourages the development of a representative group on location to perpetuate and widen the dialogue process and to seek funding for the projects they envision. Volume 10, No. 3 of CSMHI's journal, Mind and Human Interaction, is devoted entirely to our methodology.
Concepts
I. Concepts pioneered1 and amplified by CSMHI
These concepts of large-group psychology help us understand why individuals under stress adhere to the large group and why large groups under stress behave the way they do. These concepts provide professionals working with large groups under stress the tools to intervene effectively in intergroup conflict. When large groups are in conflict, large-group identity and its components and manifestations play a central, but often hidden, role in how the parties in conflict behave toward each other. Understanding large-group identity is therefore key to helping groups find a peaceful way forward to resolution of conflict and coexistence.
*Large-group identity: a shared sense of sameness among thousands or millions of people which, among other things, provides the group and the individual with a sense of protection from severe dangers and anxieties about dangers, as well as an historical coherence. This is achieved through sharing values, traditions, rituals, heroes, customary food, historical memories, and particular religious faiths.
Core identity of the individual: an individual’s sustained feeling of inner sameness within himself; that which an individual senses and experiences of himself, not what an outsider observes or perceives; the individual’s inner working model.
*Intertwining of individual and large-group identity: From childhood forward the individual absorbs, through parents and the wider culture, aspects of his or her group identity. The group identity is gradually intertwined with the growing individual’s individual identity. When a group is threatened and under stress, these threats to the group identity are felt as threats to each individual’s core identity.
*Characteristics and manifestations of large-group identity
Under stress, some aspects of large group identity are magnified. These include:
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Ethnic markers:
Historical objects, rituals, persons, places, abstract concepts of religion, ethnicity, or nationality, and shared attitudes, culture, and values that are embued by all members of the group with comforting, loving, and protective attributes from childhood forward. -
Projective identifications:
The absorption by one group of an opposing powerful group’s negative view of it and the simultaneous elevation of the opposing group’s malevolent and powerful characteristics. -
Chosen glories:
Enhancement of the group’s self esteem through the group marking of glorious events and the accentuation of group heroes. Facts become embellished or mythologized. -
Chosen trauma:
When a group has suffered severe losses, defeat, and humiliation at some point in its past, the mental representation (“chosen trauma”) of this event may become part of the group’s identity. The group’s collective view of itself as needing to right the historical wrong becomes linked to current experiences of humiliation and helplessness. This chosen trauma can be mobilized by an idealized leader to enhance group identity and call the group to action against the present day enemy. -
Rallying around the leader:
A group under stress and suffering from anxiety and helplessness seeks to reverse this condition. To shore up the group identity, the group turns to its leader. Group members seek a leader who is charismatic and seen as powerful and able to protect them. -
Symbols take on new meaning:
Groups have symbols that represent or recall their glories, traumas, history, ideals, or heroes. When groups are under stress, such symbols become endowed with more significance and create a sense of power and strength for the large group and its members.
Collective stress: When a large group of people experiences traumatic events such as economic crisis, drastic political change, social upheaval, war, or natural disasters, members of the group undergo stress, not only as individuals, but also at the group level.
Regression: When individuals are or feel threatened, their sense of basic trust is undermined and childhood danger signals are awakened, especially anxiety over the loss of the protective functions of the mother, her love, and the security she provides. This regression is further amplified when a loss (of people, land, prestige, fortune) accompanies the traumatic event(s).
*When regression occurs as a result of threat, trauma, or injury (caused by an enemy group) to an entire group or society, one can observe regression not only in individuals but in the society as a whole.
Societal regression and enemy relations: In a regressed society, the group member’s adherence to his or her group identity is an attempt to prevent fragmentation of the individual’s core identity (which includes the individual and group components). Powerful mental and behavioral mechanisms are put into play across the society and further amplified by a charismatic leader. These are attempts to do away with the perceived or actual threat and to regain or create self esteem and a sense of power.
Features of a regressed society in relation to an enemy include:
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*keeping the large-group identity separate from the identity of the enemy and maintaining the differences between them (principle of “non-sameness”),
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*maintaining a psychological border between the two large groups,
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dehumanizing and degrading the enemy,
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thinking and acting in good/bad, we/them, black/white terms,
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enhancing the group through idealizing one’s own group and attributing negative characteristics to the other group.
Transgenerational transmission of trauma: An overwhelming event (a trauma, often accompanied by losses) creates extreme feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. When this trauma is man-made (by enemies, usually), a psychological trajectory is set in motion from generation to generation. The trajectory follows this course: a traumatic event occurs which creates horror, helplessness, and powerlessness.
*This is followed by an extreme sense of humiliation and helpless rage associated with a frustrated wish for revenge. If circumstances do not allow members of the affected group to work through their humiliation, mourn their losses, and turn their helplessness into mastery, then a sense of shared victimization occurs within the traumatized large group. The members of the group, out of their group identifications as well as individual experiences, transmit their unfinished psychological tasks to new generations. The subsequent generation(s) carries a task: to keep the “memory” of the group’s trauma alive, mourn its losses, reverse its humiliation, or take revenge on its behalf. If the succeeding generation cannot effectively fulfill its shared tasks- and this is usually the case- then it will pass these tasks on to the next generation, and so on.
*Leader-follower relationships in a society under stress: Under threat, the individual regresses, adheres to his group identity, and tends to idealize a charismatic leader. This leader, if so motivated by his internal make-up, mobilizes the group regression and inflames the group’s maladaptive psychological condition. The techniques this leader employs can include: merging past group injuries with present conditions (“time collapse”), building symbols of group identity, manipulating the transgenerational transmission of trauma, idealizing the group and dehumanizing the enemy group, and promoting black/white thinking.
II. Psychopolitical dialogues
The core of CSMHI’s metholodogy is the process of psychopolitical dialogue (pioneered by CSMHI) to assist opposing groups to achieve cooperation. It consists of a series of meetings between members of opposing groups, convened by neutral third-party facilitators (mental health clinicians, diplomats, and historians). Ideally, the group meets over a period of years. The meetings occur over several days, 3-4 times per year. The time spent together is mostly in small groups, with plenary sessions to begin and end each meeting. The group process moves through stages: strengthening each group’s identity, re-humanizing the opposing group, establishing intergroup empathy, developing an understanding of psychological hidden agendas and obstacles to cooperation, and ultimately forming collaborative action plans (i.e., developing concrete projects).
III. Patterns of interaction during dialogues
The section below describes certain patterns of interaction that CSMHI has observed during psychopolitical dialogues and notes ways in which a psychologically aware facilitating team can intervene to keep the group productive.
Displacement onto a mini-conflict: This refers to a situation when the major conflict or larger issues are displaced onto a seemingly unrelated conflict which then rises to the level of an immediate crisis. This crisis, although symbolic of what will be explored later, is essentially insignificant in comparison to the salient aspects of the ethnic or national conflict for which the dialogue meeting has been organized. The facilitator must approach the crisis seriously, with assurance and respect toward the participants’ large-group sentiments and must not allow it to drag on. An example of a mini-conflict occurred in one dialogue series when a participant demanded that his wife be allowed to attend a meeting. This issue took on seemingly critical importance and obscured the large-group issues for the time being. In this instance, the mini-conflict was resolved by the facilitator declaring that all spouses were welcome. (None actually attended after this invitation.)
Competition to express historical grievances (“chosen traumas”) and past triumphs (“chosen glories"): At the outset of unofficial dialogue meetings, the competition to list grievances seems involuntary and the absence of empathy for the other side’s losses and injuries is expectable. This exchange of grievances appears to be necessary to the process because it serves to strengthen participants’ hold on their ethnic identities. This strengthening of identities is a necessary prelude to being able to hear the other side. Furthermore, when opposing groups begin to “hear” each other as the process proceeds, mutual recognition of one another’s suffering creates a favorable atmosphere for progress in negotiation because underneath there is a mutual understanding of each other’s group identity. During the listing of grievances, the task of the facilitating team is to absorb the outpouring of the parties’ emotions through active listening, to avoid taking sides, and thus to become a model of empathic listening.
Projection: This occurs when one group projects onto the other its own wishes for how the opposing side should think, feel, or behave. The groups end up talking about what they think the other group wants rather than what the other group actually thinks, feels, or wants. The facilitators clarify, for example, that each group may wish or fear various outcomes but that each group should report on its own feelings, thoughts, and actions so that a “reality” emerges not colored by fantasized and projected expectations.
Accordion phenomenon: There is a natural alternation of closeness and separation during intense emotional dialogues about ethnic group conflict. Dialogue participants alternately identify with the other group and feel close and then feel uncomfortable and need to withdraw. It is important for facilitators to understand and keep in mind the “principle of non-sameness” (that opposing groups must maintain the differences between them) because any intervention, action, or suggestion that undermines this principle is likely to be counterproductive in the long run. Therefore, it is unwise to develop formal agreements when the groups are very close because soon the “sameness” that this entails will become unbearable and they will push apart again. Facilitators should be aware of this phenomenon and recognize that agreement and realistic negotiation should not occur until this alternating effect moderates and diminishes.
Echo phenomenon: When representatives of opposing sides open a discussion, the echo of recent events involving their large groups can often be heard in their exchanges, further igniting emotions that exacerbate resistances to adaptive discussions. When this happens, the facilitators clarify the feelings that the participants may feel are unacceptable and which are ignited by the event. This empathic clarification enables the group members to continue adaptively rather than attempting to repress or contain their feelings. An example of this was when, in an Arab-Israeli workshop, a one minute silence in memory of several assassinated leaders was held. During this minute many aggressive remarks were heard, but the affect was flat. A facilitator noted to the groups that the shadow of the assassinations seemed to inhibit the expression of emotion, especially aggressive emotions related to vengeance and the desire to “get even.” The discussion then continued in a more natural way.
1] Concepts and ideas pioneered by CSMHI are marked with an asterisk.
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