Our Identities as part of Conflict​

One way of looking at conflict is to see it from the perspective of individual and collective identity. Who we are as people and the groups we belong to- can be a family, race, religion, ethnic group, nationality, etc. These are the collective memories we have. The stories we are told about our group through family, school, the media and society give us a sense of who we are. They give us our culture, our history, our sense of being. They give pride. They also give a sense of who our enemies are and how they made us suffer.

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Vamik Volkan, a Cypriot psychiatrist specializing in the psychology of conflict. Volkan describes that each of us wears two layers of clothing: 1) our personal identity and 2) our collective identity. Our collective identity is our ethnic, religious or cultural identity that is emotionally bonded to the group we are part of. This second covering protects us in the way a parent or caregiver protects us. Volkan gives the metaphor of a large canvas tent. Each of us has many layers in our tent to represent the many collective identities we belong to such as language group, culture, religion, race, interests, nationality, etc.  Often, there is a leader for each of these layers. Volkan sees the leader of a collective identity as the pole that keeps the tent up. In conflict, we feel that one or more of the layers of our canvas tent is under attack. That an outside group is trying to destroy our collective identities and who we are. We may see the threat as physical but we also interpret the threat as psychological even if we are not aware of it. Just as we cannot allow someone to destroy our personal identity- our sense of who we are- we don’t tolerate attacks on our collective identities either. We feel that if one or more of the layers of the tent are damaged, we lose who we are, our identity, our protection and sense of safety. 

Volkan goes on to describe the historical traumas and historical glories that are part of our collective identities. These are events in our history that have been mythologized or romanticized to act as defining moments in the creation of our collective identities. For example a battle that was won or lost and has heroes and victims. He calls these events Chosen Traumas and Chosen Glories.  Their purpose is to give our collective identities a sense of definition and purpose. They also allow us to have a sense of entitlement as a group. For example, if our group lost or won a great battle, we will use this historical Chosen Trauma or Chosen Glory to justify our actions in conflict in the present.