Review: The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep: A relational approach to internalized perpetration in complex trauma survivors

It is a rather daunting and humbling task to review a book that is written on a subject matter that the reviewer specializes in but which the author has taken to a whole new level. My hope is that I can come close to doing justice to the intricacy, complexity and sensitivity of this important work.

Most readers will find The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep: A relational approach to internalized perpetration in complex trauma survivors (Routledge, 2013), especially the small minority who specialize in treating victims of complex trauma, dissociative disorders, and organized child abuse, to be both inspiring and intimidating. This is as it should be when readers are fortunate enough to come across a book that goes beyond the limits of contemporary thinking on a range of important matters.

This book offers hope and guidance to any who are required to walk into and understand the profound forms of chaos and darkness that are inevitably encountered when helping others to undo and rework the most insidious and damaging effects of severe child abuse, multiple perpetrator abuse, group violence, trauma bonding, mental programming and “soul murder.” All of what Dr. Schwartz describes must be known from the inside and out, if therapists are going to lead afflicted individuals out of their shattered identities/realities and back into the human community.

This book displays an uncanny ability to explore the darkest dimensions of human relatedness, i.e., systematic torture, mind control and murder of the spirit, as well as many, if not all, of trauma’s most complex effects, e.g., dissociation, identity fragmentation, loss of innocence and identification with and internalization of one’s perpetrators, as well as, the destruction of any sense of personal identity and belief in collective or archetypal goodness. Judith Herman opened up the notion of Complex PTSD and Harvey Schwartz takes it to another level and also shows how to successfully work with its most complex aspects.

The author explores territories that most mental health professionals and contemporary citizens would hesitate to enter. Dr. Schwartz is willing to enter into the moral wastelands where the people he treats in psychotherapy have been deposited by their tormentors. He records the geography and dangers that are endemic to this terrain in a manner that that no book has previously done in the trauma field. Almost all contemporary forms of clinical thought are unwilling and unable to address or work with the darkest aspects of human nature and human societies. The work of documenting and analyzing the methods, madness and social complicity responsible for the Holocaust presents an ongoing challenge to our human capacity to face horrors of such magnitude. Yet the task is essential for the societal evolution of an ethic of care. In the same spirit, The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep enters the terrain of unspeakable atrocity and emerges with valuable knowledge that applies to all forms of intentional and large-scale violence.

This reviewer knows from professional experience that those who have been intentionally fragmented by sophisticated perpetrators are not able to purposefully gain access to or work through the complexity of their internal systems without the skills, courage and care of an unusually knowledgeable therapist. How to language and work with the complexity of what is involved in coerced perpetration trauma and the restructuring of a personality that has been nearly destroyed is a task of monumental proportion. This restoration and healing of a personality system that has become riddled with self-hatred, self-doubt, psychic sabotage, perpetual evasiveness and almost total mistrust of other human beings is something that most therapists (and theoreticians) are not well equipped to approach and process.

Like his first book Dialogues With Forgotten Voices: Relational perspectives on child abuse trauma and treatment of dissociative disorders (Basic Books, 2000), Dr. Schwartz’s second book, The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep takes the trauma field for a quantum leap and would be helpful to many clinicians, theorists, and lay people working in the field.  The book will likely expand readers’ capacities to better understand, work with and respect anyone who has survived coerced perpetration trauma (i.e., those whose capacities for perpetration were activated and developed by disturbed family members, criminal groups, cult, cartel, and charismatic leaders, and corrupt military and para-military personnel, as in the case of child soldiers). The chapter, Perpetrators and Perpetrator States, is the highlight of the book. It integrates essential psychoanalytic concepts with the trauma and dissociation literature. By exposing this previously hidden, poorly understand and universal form of trauma (coerced perpetration trauma), The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep provides therapists with new perspectives to potentiate effective witnessing and healing for the many trauma survivors whose suffering has gone unrecognized and untreated for far too long.

In his first book, Dialogues with Forgotten Voices, Dr. Schwartz probed deeply into the complexities of organized child abuse, intergenerational familial abuse, severe dissociative disorders and relational approaches to treatment. In that book, he detailed how predatory individuals disrupt, fragment, empty and annihilate the identities of their prey. He also examined patterns of individual and social complicity, and created a map of patterns of perpetration. While attempting to unlock some of the key puzzles of posttraumatic psychological adaptation, Dr. Schwartz’s earlier book examined the interdependence between psychosocial complicity and survivors’ internalization of patterns of complicity/collusion and their long-standing effects.

In The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep, Schwartz dives much deeper into an analysis that he started in his first book. Here, he delves into how perpetrators break and control their victims through a sophisticated mixture of: inducing intolerable levels of pain, terror, and isolation; slaughtering innocence; alternating “rescuing” with torturing; fomenting traumatic attachments; engineering dissociative splits in the personality; implanting fail-safe mechanisms; and, utterly destroying any hope that individuals will be rescued, forgiven or redeemed. The book meticulously dissects how perpetrators bind their victims to their own wounded psyches, to malevolent family, cult, criminal systems, and pedophile networks, and para-military units. It catalogues a blueprint of interpersonal and intrapsychic dynamics containing the mindsets and methodologies used by perpetrators to transform vulnerable individuals (typically children) into psychological containers for the damaged, dead and toxic aspects of their personalities, while exploiting their victims’ constant fears of identity loss, engulfment and psychic annihilation.

The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep takes readers into the deep end of the pool. The book dives down into the daunting clinical challenge of trying to remain compassionate and effective in the face of an individual’s obliterated sense of self and spirit. Schwartz describes, with a level of insight and precision rarely seen in an academic book, how victims of malevolent perpetration attempt to hold onto their humanity and essential spirituality through a sophisticated usage of dissociation, internalization/identification processes, and archetypical imagery. This material is presented in a way that helps practitioners navigate through a labyrinth of dissociative obstacles, while also providing hope to both therapists and clients, especially when the essence of this work requires one to work with a population who identifies with being beyond hope, repair or redemption.

Because the psychological, interpersonal and spiritual damage sustained by the individuals described in his book was done in and through some distorted form of human relatedness, Schwartz posits the healing must be done through some transformational form of human relatedness. Describing the process of relational return in an intricate, nuanced and compassionate manner, the author illuminates how the persistent, non-judgmental, committed and knowledgeable care of a single human being can help light the path out of the nightmare maze created by scripted programming, torture and abuse, and complex traumatic bonding (all of which were deployed to shatter, destroy and ultimately control every aspect of an individual’s being).

Working at the extreme end of the interpersonal continuum, i.e., in terms of polyfragmented dissociative self-organization, radical subterfuge, and the internalization of and/or identification with evil, the author’s methods are multifaceted and designed to grapple with a myriad of malevolent forces that have been enacted upon the bodies, psyches, and spirits of his clients. The last chapter of the book takes a profound look at the transpersonal and archetypal issues that typically emerge in the wake of having been repetitively and systematically traumatized (deconstructed) by other human beings. When evil is major part of perpetration (i.e., desire to obliterate another’s sense of psychic integrity, goodness and divinity), then matters of the spirit will inevitably enter into any authentic healing process.

By adopting the best aspects of relational psychoanalysis and expanding beyond them, Schwartz provides readers with a blueprint of interpersonal and intrapsychic dynamics that are so complex and convoluted that only a highly experienced trauma specialist could put them into words, let alone articulate how to use these dynamics in an effective and therapeutic manner. What is described in this book involves a level of knowledge that only a true sifu could acquire through years of having done combat with a range of violent and malevolent forces. Bridging relational and archetypal perspectives on trauma and treatment the author transcends some of the unnecessary polarization and fragmentation that plague the mental health field, offering integrative clinical approaches than have not been previously conceived or developed. This book advocates for clinicians to move beyond limited ideologies and constrictive paradigms of treatment, finding new forms of creativity and courage to effectively meet the suffering (and the unique clinical challenges and confusing presentations) of savagely abused human beings.

There are several aspects of this book that are of particular interest and which deserve special recognition:

• The archetypal journey of child soldiers as therapeutic model for transformation

·      Mutations and restorations of innocence

·      Therapists as transitional objects for trauma survivors, providing linking and integration functions across a range of dissociated ego and affect states

·      A therapist’s multiple relational approaches with multiple subjectivities

·      Reparative tactics for damaged responses to pain and pleasure

·      The technological intricacies of intentionally fragmenting another human being’s identity

·      Traumatic attachment and loss of one’s subjectivity and identity to another person

·      Primitive envy and its role in the eradication of another person’s psychic vitality and personal spirit

·      Deprogramming methods for survivors of mind control and coercive violence against others

·      Treating internalization of perpetrators’ malevolent values as survival responses

·      The importance of self-forgiveness for perpetration or collusion against a third party

·      The role of transpersonal and archetypal energies in healing and transformation

This book is a must-read for any who want to better understand and treat those who have been exposed to the most malevolent forms of human exploitation as well as for those who want to better appreciate the many paradoxical forms of courage that are manifested by the most psychologically wounded members of the human race. It should be a requisite field manual in the rucksack of all spiritual warrior clinicians who dare enter a psychic war zone, triage those who lie broken, and eventually bring some of them back home. Very few in the field of trauma are willing to enter such dangerous territory, let alone dare to succeed or to fail in assisting others back to an “ordinary” life.

The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep is an intense read. It is densely packed and almost every line has been carefully honed to convey maximum understanding for the difficult plight of working with the traumatically afflicted with internalized perpetration. There is little room to breathe in this book. As a result, readers have to proceed slowly. They should allow themselves to be affected by and digest material that will take them beyond the parameters of mainstream awareness. Because The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep provides breakthrough perspectives to allow previously unknown points of access to better understand and treat some of the most intractable conditions of the human spirit. Readers who work with these populations will most likely find that their own worldviews and practices have been transformed. If clinicians are able to comprehend and work with the populations that are mentioned throughout this book, then working with other types of traumatized individuals should be a piece of cake. For this reason alone, The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep is worth its weight in gold.

Robert Grant Ph.D.

Oakland, California 2014

Judgment Ridge: The Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders

Judgment Ridge: The Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders

by Dick Lehr and Michael Zuckoff

7/2007

This book review speaks to several important issues that apply to several of the school shootings that have occurred, in the United States, over the last two decades.

Reviewed by Robert Grant, Ph.D.

Judgment Ridge is a very well-written and -researched book. It provides considerable context and unfolds like a murder mystery novel. The story line is engrossing, and it is hard to put  down. The authors are not out to shock readers with the gory details of the very gruesome and horrific murder of two well-loved and respected Dartmouth professors (Half and Susanne Zantop) in Hanover, New Hampshire in January 2001. The Zantops were killed by two high school students from nearby Chelsea, Vermont. This case received considerable media attention (both at home and abroad).

            The authors, both investigative journalists, create a very detailed description of the bucolic environment, from which the readers would have a hard time imagining that two violent young murderers, Robert Tulloch (17) and James Parker (16), could emerge. Readers are supposed to question how such a quiet and peaceful town could produce not only two cold-blooded teenage killers but also several adults (four parents, a score of teachers, a high school principal and debate coach) who were unable to recognize many signs that suggested that the morality of these two boys was seriously declining, they had disgust for all forms of adult authority and that they were becoming increasing psychopathological.

            The strength and weakness of this fascinating book is its emphasis on documentation and detail. The authors create a complex tapestry out of numerous events that exemplify how two best friends began to increasingly distance themselves from their high school friends, classmates, parents, and school authorities, while at the same time developed a vision, rationale, and plan to execute being “badass desperadoes” who could rob and kill while moving from one adventure to next, while continuing to outwit and elude law enforcement personnel.        The lives of parents and murder victims, as well as friends, teachers and classmates are described in considerable detail so as to continually remind readers that these boys and their chilling murders involved real people growing up in a real middle-American setting.

            The difficulty with the book is that there is not enough forensic meat on the bones of this very long book. The psychological analysis of the authors is right out of an elementary Abnormal Psychology textbook. Sociopathy, narcissistic features (feelings of superiority, entitlement and unbridled rage, coupled with poor impulse control, needs for immediate gratification and hyper-sensitivity to being criticized and/or humiliated, especially in the case of the ring leader, Robert Tulloch and bipolar disorders are the extent of their psychological references.

Towards the end of the book, during trial preparations, forensic evaluators searched for traces of parental abuse and find none, while the possibility of mental illness in the family tree of Robert Tulloch (i.e., his father struggled with alcoholism, depression, and suicide) was considered. Finally a psycho-neurologist, named Dr. Price, suggested the possibility of a brain abnormality that mitigated against having compassion for their victims.

            Although the authors are forensic reporters and not forensic psychologists, the book does not help readers move beyond the level of behavioral manifestations to the sociocultural and adolescent aspects of the case. This reviewer was struck that the authors never addressed the fact that not a single adult understood or tried to understand how these two troubled young boys viewed the world of adult authority.  In other words, as is often the case with adolescents, their inner reality was relatively unknown to everyone except themselves .  Adults are notorious in this story for either being in denial or distorting the reality of these two teenagers.

The authors gave ample evidence, based on confessions both prior to and after sentencing, of the types of material to which they were exposed, e.g., the ubermensch readings of Frederick Neitszche, as well as, a number of violent movies and video games. In addition, their lack of respect for what they considered to be the naive, stupid, and middle class values of their parents, teachers, townspeople, and classmates was never fully fathomed by any around them who often made benign excuses for their troubling remarks and behaviors. Despise their increasing contempt for almost everyone around them, adults continued to make excuses for their arrogant, antisocial, and criminal behaviors. The murder and torture of the Tulloch family dog, numerous petty crimes, house break-ins, repeated acts of vandalism, robberies, purchase of stun guns (which were confiscated by Mrs. Tulloch  and whose credit card was used to make their purchase) and commando knives (the murder weapons), along with contemptuous behaviors in the classrooms and public debate forums, were either ignored or rationalized by those around them. In addition, their parents rarely questioned their where they were and/or any suspicious behavior they exhibited.

            In addition, these two very bright boys (confirmed by the fact that they had passed several advanced placement tests) were not required to spend much time in school. With a great deal of time on their hands, they were accountable to no one. They also had easy access to the cars of their parents, which they actually used to commit several misdemeanors and the murder of Zantops. It seems that the parents and other adults were oblivious to the fact that these two boys were also involved in a great deal of sinister fantasizing and malicious behavior.

            The inner reality of these two boys consisted of making their own rules, being above the law and looking down on middle class values, e.g., hard work, sacrifice and a gradual achievement of goals. In addition, their inner world also disrespected the conservatism and lack of critical thinking that was exhibited by the people who lived in their town. Their parents’ lack of aspirations and sophistication, coupled with the contempt the boys felt for their teachers, who continually conveyed representations of reality that failed to jive with the boys take on the amorality of American politics and business practices, only increased the boy’s alienation from everything around them. Most importantly, these two male teenagers resented the control that adults had over their lives at every important juncture.  All of their problematic emotions and perceptions found validation and instant gratification in the virtual world of the Internet and video games.

            The susceptibility of one boy (James) to be led and the need of the other boy (Robert) to lead - speaks to the selfobject dynamics of adolescent identity formation, as conceived of by Heinz Kohut, especially when there was a scarcity of adults in their environment whom they could idealize and pattern their lives after.

The question then becomes how to understand how two smart and talented boys (Robert was president of the student council and James displayed considerable musical and dramatic ability) could end up violently murdering two total strangers? There are many teenagers that lack structured homes and lifestyles. There are several others with deficient characters and oblivious authority figures who never murder.

            The authors show little understanding of what is like to be a teenager, let alone a teenager in a postmodern world that is characterized by moral relativity and continued acts of adult betrayal,  especially by those in positions of trust and power, e.g.,  American presidents, corporate CEO’s and church ministers. The message constantly portrayed in the movies and media is that might is right, i.e., those with power and the means can create their own rules, while the rest of society fails to realize that they are being continually fleeced by those who know how the game of life is played. The effect of a world without values on the idealistic and extremist tendencies of adolescent boys is something that very few adults, let alone teachers in educational institutions,  know anything about. The failure of adults to openly discuss these issues only makes them more despicable in the eyes of certain adolescents.  Free and unstructured time, access to funds, and repeated failures on the part of adults to identify the fact that these two boys were drifting more and more towards nihilism and amorality, along with, increased feelings of being controlled by people whom they did not respect and a powerful fear of the drudgery and responsibility that awaited them in the adult world, influenced these two well-read and intelligent boys to end up rejecting (in toto) the world that was being offered by those adults around them. Tragically, as is often the case, the adults around them didn’t have a clue that these boys rejected their world lock, stock and barrel.

            Judgment Ridge is so bent on getting the facts straight that it misses for forest for the trees.  It is good journalism and forensic reporting but it provides little insight into the emerging disrespect for the adult world, as well as, the world of adolescent rage and violence that can be occur when idealistic children end up feeling isolated from their peers and contemptuous of their supposed role models. In essence, high school culture frequently provides children with distorted versions of social reality and adults.

Educational specialists and the general public typically fail to realize how difficult it is for adolescents to form an adult sense of self, especially when the adult versions of reality that presented to children are either highly suspect or un-real. The aforementioned  leads, at minimum,  disillusionment, and at worst, to feelings of betrayal and  unrestrained violence. Such scenarios are quite common and quite dangerous, especially in the case of intelligent and aggressive teenage boys. They can lead, in many instances, to depression, drug addiction, suicide, sociopathy, counter cultural forms of insurgency and/or murderous violence.

Robert Tulloch and James Parker seemed to be caught in the above dynamic and, as a result, turned towards each other - with the result of intensifying a dyadic, as opposed to social focus and a fantasy world that was based in power, overturning adult forms of authority, unrestrained aggression, wanderlust and violence. 

Adolescence is a time of identity consolidation. With no adults to pattern themselves after, these two boys turned to each other as selfobjects  - with little input from any outside source. The dangers of this type of exclusivity, especially in the case of teenagers, should be apparent.

In summary, this excellent and captivating story is more of a police novel that provides readers with a very rich context in which criminal activities and mindsets emerged. At the same time, readers are left with the same headline conclusions of aberrant adolescent development and behaviors that are used to explain characterize the violent acts of two high school students. Consideration of character disorders, insanity defenses, abuse and neglect histories are important in many instances of criminal and/or abusive behavior, but it is much easier for the general population to swallow these characterizations than the fact that adults continue to misunderstand children, especially adolescents in regard to their perceived lacks of power, needs to discover areas of control, sensitivity to humiliation, capacity for narcissistic injury/rage and lack of respect for adults who are perceived as weak, duplicitous and in denial about a range of social realties and improprieties.

Adolescents need adults who understand them, who walk the talk and who do not provide cleaned up or sanitized versions of reality. At the same time, they need proper limits and guidance. Adolescents are often able to question and see that the king has no clothes on because they have not had to completely dull their perceptions or reality in order to obtain inclusion into the adult world, e.g., get and hold a job, find a spouse, buy a home and pay taxes. Emphasis on the status quo (without forums for critical and honest analysis that both understand and validate the veracity of adolescent critiques of the adult world) can create scenarios where bright and talented children decide to break off from the morals of the extended community and create their own rules and/or decide to take vengeance on the world of dis-respected peers and adult,  whom are consider to naïve, hypocritical and patronizing. Adolescents who feel that they have not been understood or prepared for the realities and duplicities of the adult world are at serious risk of acting out and behaving violently toward themselves (suicide) and/or others (homicide).