Combat Trauma from Ancient Times to Modern Day

 

 

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge and Lt Colonel Ivan Welch, PhD, US Army

 

Combat trauma has affected soldiers throughout history, from ancient times to the modern day. The psychophysical effects of combat have been recorded since the early days of human civilization. From the time of Homer’s ancient story of the battle between the Trojans and the Greeks (1200 BC), military personnel have been confronted by the trauma of war. According to the historians, Saul, the king of Israel (11th century BC), had abnormal behavior with an inclination towards violence. On one occasion, he went into a brutal rage and tried to kill his son Jonathan.

Alexander the Great (356 BC–323 BC), who had conquered a large portion of the known world at that era, suffered from combat stress. When his forces came near the Indus River, Alexander’s forces were exhausted and refused to march further. Alexander the Great's army experienced battle fatigue, which significantly impacted their willingness to fight.

The Emperor Ashoka (304 BC-232 BC) of India experienced a depressive reaction soon after the Kalinga War after witnessing deaths and destruction. He felt disheartened by his military actions and completely renounced violence and embraced Buddhism. His psychological shift away from violence denotes a drastic personality change following war trauma. The Emperor Ashoka was able to achieve post-traumatic growth.

The Roman Empire, which lasted from 27 BC to 1453, was filled with battle stress. A countless number of soldiers and civilians experienced a great deal of combat-related stress during this time period. Roman legionaries witnessed death, injury, and the brutality of battle as a result of close-quarters combat. Once archeologists discovered an ancient bunker from the Britannic Islands, which was used by the Roman soldiers. They found frescos that portrayed the isolation, nostalgia, uncertainty, and fear experienced by the soldiers.

The Crusades (1095-1291) were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land, significantly impacting religious and political dynamics.  Many crusaders would have returned to Europe suffering with the mental consequences of war trauma, or the physical consequences of disability from weapon injuries.

The Great Oriental Conqueror Tamerlane (Timur) (1336-1405) was highly affected by the war stress and demonstrated aggressive and sadistic behavior. He was fond of building pyramids of human skulls. Once he made a giant pyramid after a war that contained some 40,000 skulls. Tamerlane had a link to trauma-induced aggression.

The prophet Nostradamus named Napoleon Bonaparte as an antichrist. Napoleon’s forces invaded many parts of Europe and North Africa. His Moscow invasion in 1812 caused heavy damage to the French forces. The French Army had to face the cold Russian winter, famine, and General Kutuzov’s cannon fire. After his disastrous retreat, Napoleon was sent into exile. He escaped from the island of Elba and engaged in the so-called Hundred Days of War. Finally, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the Duke of Wellington—the Leopard of England. Napoleon's decision-making seemed to decline during later campaigns. This could be due to ongoing combat stresses that he experienced. According to the historical accounts, Napoleon was increasingly irritable and prone to bouts of melancholy. Napoleon went into post-combat depression and died on the island of St. Helena in 1821 while in exile.

During the US Civil War, Dr. Mendez Da Costa evaluated 300 soldiers referred to him for a syndrome that he called irritable heart. This syndrome was characterized by shortness of breath, palpitations, burning chest pain, fatigability, headache, diarrhea, dizziness, and disturbed sleep. This condition was later called Da Costa Syndrome. (A syndrome is a group of symptoms that occur together and that are characteristic of a disease or condition.) The civil war participants suffered from psychological wounds, often manifesting as anxiety, depression, and somatization.

At the beginning of World War one the Effort Syndrome was frequently attributed to cardiac hypertrophy caused by heavy marching and packs compressing the chest. The Effort syndrome was considered to be a psychoneurosis and not a medical disease. In 1938, Soley and Shock claimed that hyperventilation was responsible for the symptoms of effort syndrome.

Until World War I (1914-1918), psychological consequences of war trauma were considered merely manifestations of poor discipline and cowardice, and often the victims were severely punished. Some military records of WW1 indicate that a considerable number of shell-shocked soldiers were given the FP-1, or Field Punishment Number One. FP-1 involved the offender being attached to a fixed object for up to two hours a day and for a period of up to three months, often put in a place within range of enemy shellfire. Dr. Charles Myer suspected the psychological factors associated with shell shock.

The Nobel Prize Laureate Ernest Hemingway served in the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War that erupted in 1936. Hemingway saw the horrendous war trauma in Spain, and that inspired him to write his famous novel A Farewell to Arms. Anyhow, in later years Ernest Hemingway experienced depression and took his own life. According to the military psychiatrist Dr. William Pike, half of the Spanish Civil War veterans suffered from severe combat-related stress. At one point, Dr. William Pike treated 28 shell-shocked men who were hiding in a wine cellar.

During World War II (1939-1945), battle stress was classified as operational fatigue or war neurosis. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was evident during World War II, and most of the symptoms had a somatic nature. It has been estimated that 10% of US servicemen developed combat exhaustion in WW2. The military authorities were not very empathetic towards war-stressed sufferers, and on one occasion, General George S. Patton slapped and verbally abused Pvt. Paul G. Bennet and Pvt. Charles H. Kuhl, who experienced battle fatigue.

The term Section Eight was used to identify the victims of psychological effects of war trauma in the Korean War, which continued from 1950 to 1953. Psychiatric evacuations were considerably reduced during the Korean War due to the praiseworthy work of Dr. Albert Glass. However, in a recent study done by Dr. Malcolm Sim and colleagues of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, it was found that anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression were present in Korean War veterans 50 years after the war.

In 1965, the United States sent troops to South Vietnam to help fight communist guerrillas. US troops fought in hostile territory, facing sudden ambushes and booby-trap mines. US forces faced defeat and were forced to withdraw from Vietnam in 1975. During the Vietnam War, 2.8 million US servicemen served in Southeast Asia, mainly in Vietnam, and almost one million were exposed to active combat. By the end of the war, over 50,000 Vietnam veterans were diagnosed with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD has been found in 15% of 500,000 men who were in Vietnam. It is said 20,000 veterans committed suicide in the war's aftermath.

On December 25, 1979, the Soviet Union sent forces to Afghanistan. By 1986, about 118,000 Soviet troops and 50,000 Afghan government troops were facing perhaps 130,000 Mujahideen guerrillas. Following the conflict, over one million Afghans had died, and the Soviet army lost 14,427 combatants. When Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader in 1985, he was keen to get Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. The Soviet withdrawal was completed in February 1989. Although the Soviet health authorities did not comment on psychological casualties of the Afghan War, there were significant numbers of PTSD victims in the Red Army who fought in Afghanistan. Since PTSD was not recognized in the Soviet Union at that era, the Afghan veterans did not receive proper psychological and psychiatric treatment. Many veterans are still haunted by the war's intrusions.

The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), also known as the First Gulf War, was conducted by the Coalition Forces to free Kuwait from Iraqi forces led by Saddam Hussein. The number of coalition wounded in combat seems to have been 776, including 458 Americans. Iraq sustained between 20,000 and 35,000 fatalities. The Gulf War Syndrome was evident during the Persian Gulf War, and many returning coalition soldiers reported illnesses such as headaches, memory loss, fatigue, sleep disorders, intestinal ailments, and unusual loss of hearing. Nearly 150,000 veterans have shown symptoms of Gulf War illness.

According to Toomey R and Kang HK, Karlinsky ("Mental health of US Gulf War veterans 10 years after the war," British Journal of Psychiatry 2007) found that deployment in the Gulf War was associated with increased levels of mental disorders, psychological symptoms, and a lower quality of life—beginning during the war and persisting at a lower rate 10 years later. Around 700,000 US military personnel were deployed to the Middle East during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. These veterans reported greater psychological symptoms immediately after the war than veterans who were not sent to the Gulf. 10 years later, these cases of depression and non-PTSD anxiety disorders remained significantly more prevalent among deployed compared with non-deployed veterans. PTSD was over 3 times more prevalent among deployed veterans.

The War in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict that began on October 7, 2001 and ended with United States troop withdrawal in 2021. The Second Gulf War, also known as the Iraq War, can be considered an ongoing military campaign that began on March 20, 2003, with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom. These are massive military campaigns in the present day. These conflicts have produced a large number of psychological casualties. The researchers say nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan—300,000 in all—report symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to a 2005 VA study of 168,528 Iraq veterans, 20 percent were diagnosed with psychological disorders, including 1,641 with PTSD.

The armed conflict in Sri Lankan which lasted for nearly three decades, had generated a large number of combatants, members of the LTTE, and civilians affected by war trauma, especially PTSD. Studies have shown significant rates of PTSD among individuals exposed to the conflict, including combatants and civilians. Most of these war stressors were not diagnosed sufficiently, and they are not receiving adequate treatment. Therefore, war stress can affect Sri Lankan society for a long time.

Chechen Wars (1994-1996) and the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) resulted in widespread psychological trauma for both civilians and combatants, with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues. A study in Chechnya found that 86% of the population experienced physical or emotional "distress" due to the conflict. 

The Ukrainian War began in February 2014. It has generated increased rates of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the war victims. The war has become a collective trauma for the Ukrainians. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 68% of Ukrainians report a decline in their health, with mental health concerns.

Trauma is a universal human experience, and it is cumulative and reverberates across generations. The experience of combat trauma is a constant across time. Understanding combat trauma from ancient times to the present day provides valuable insights about warfare and its impact on individuals and their society and how societies interpreted and responded to the psychological effects of combat. It provides a deeper understanding of the psychological and emotional toll of combat. This insight would help culturally appropriate and effective interventions to deal with war trauma.

  

About the Authors

 Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge, M.D., Ph.D., is a medical doctor and a clinical psychologist, as well as a member of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is a member of the International Scientific Committee of the Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED) panel, representing Canada. He has authored a number of books on PTSD and war trauma and is a guest lecturer at Sri Lankan and North American universities.

Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Welch, PhD, US Army, Retired LTC Welch served twenty-seven years in the US Army as an enlisted soldier and as an officer. As an Infantry Officer he served in international peacekeeping, ground combat, and high level staff positions. He taught in military training and education settings as well as a civilian university. He was a researcher and writer for the US Army Foreign Military Studies Office. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Kansas.

Can Science Prove the Existence of God?

 

 

The belief in God, or a higher power, likely emerged from a combination of factors including early humans' attempts to explain natural phenomena, the development of social structures, and the human need for comfort and meaning in the face of mortality.

Early humans faced many natural phenomena they couldn't understand, like weather patterns, celestial events, and even death. Belief in gods or spirits provided explanations for these events and helped make sense of the world around them. It's unknown whether Neanderthals had a belief in God or gods. While there's evidence of complex burial rituals and symbolic behaviors. Evidence suggests that early hominins, even before modern humans, displayed behaviors that could be interpreted as religious or spiritual, indicating a long history of belief. 

The belief in gods or supernatural beings is a widespread phenomenon across civilizations. Humans developed belief in God for a combination of reasons, including a desire to explain the unknown, find meaning and purpose, and seek comfort and social cohesion.

In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. For them, God is the supreme or ultimate reality, a celestial entity with perfect power, wisdom, and goodness. The idea of a single God, or monotheism, is considered to have emerged later, with the first monotheistic religion, Judaism, tracing its origins to Abraham around 2000 BCE. 

Sociologists view belief in God as a socially constructed phenomenon, not a divinely revealed truth. They explore how religious beliefs and practices function within society, focusing on their social origins, organization, and impact on social life. Psychological explanations of belief in God explore how deeply rooted human needs and cognitive tendencies contribute to religious belief. Theories suggest that belief in God may fulfill needs for comfort, security, and meaning, or that it arises from inherent cognitive biases. 

The question of whether humans created God is a complex one with varying perspectives. Some theories propose that humans invented the concept of God, particularly in early societies, to explain the unknown or provide comfort. Some anthropologists suggest that early humans, lacking scientific explanations, personified natural forces and created deities to understand and control their environment.  

Different cultures developed diverse pantheons and mythologies, indicating a human-driven process of creating gods. Some theories propose that the concept of God fulfills psychological needs, such as providing a sense of security, morality, and social cohesion. The ability to engage in complex social interactions and understand the minds of others may have led to the development of the concept of a divine being.

Religious thought has evolved over millennia, influenced by human development, societal changes, and new understandings of the world. Early forms of religion likely involved animistic beliefs and rituals to understand and interact with the natural world. Over time, religions have developed more complex systems of belief, including monotheism, and have adapted to changing social, political, and intellectual landscapes. Many religions posit God as eternal, existing without beginning or end.

In many theistic traditions, God is understood to be a source of goodness and righteousness. However, the existence of suffering and evil in the world raises questions about God's nature and intentions. Scientific evidence can't conclusively demonstrate that God exists. Theologians argue that science doesn't have the processes to prove or disprove the existence of God.

Some mathematicians have sought a logical proof for the existence of God. Those who refute this idea indicate that mathematics deals with abstract concepts and logical relationships, while the existence of God is an empirical question.

According to most major religions, God is considered omnipotent, and God has unlimited power and can do anything that is logically possible. The concept of God as all-powerful seems to imply an ability to eliminate evil. Many theologians argue that God created humans with free will, allowing them to choose between good and evil.

Aristotle conceived of God as the "unmoved mover," an eternal, perfect being that is the ultimate cause of all motion and change in the universe. Aristotle made God passively responsible for change in the world in the sense that all things seek divine perfection. He believed God is a mind, not a physical being, and is pure form without matter.

Baruch Spinoza's concept of God, as articulated in his philosophy, is fundamentally different from the traditional, theistic view. He posits that God is not a separate, transcendent being who created the world, but rather God is the universe itself, encompassing all of existence.

Arthur Schopenhauer, while not believing in a personal God in the traditional sense, grappled with the concept of God and religion throughout his philosophy. He viewed the world as driven by a blind, irrational "will" rather than divine design.

Friedrich Nietzsche's famous declaration, "God is dead," signifies the decline of belief in God and traditional morality within Western civilization. He argued that the concept of God was a human creation, and as rational thought and scientific understanding advanced, belief in God and the moral frameworks based on it were fading.

Albert Einstein's views on God were complex and evolved throughout his life. He didn't believe in a personal God who intervened in human affairs, but he did express admiration for the order and harmony of the universe, often using the term "God" to refer to this underlying principle. He rejected traditional religious dogma and anthropomorphic conceptions of God.

Bertrand Russell argued that the concept of God was not supported by reason or evidence and that religious beliefs were often harmful and irrational. He claims that the existence of suffering in the world makes it difficult to believe an omnipotent and benevolent God created the world.

Stephen Hawking was an atheist and frequently stated that he did not believe in God or an afterlife. He believed the universe was created by natural laws and that there is no divine creator or overseer. He viewed religion as a way to answer scientific questions before science.

Michio Kaku often discusses the concept of God in the context of physics, particularly in relation to string theory and the search for a theory of everything. He suggests that the "mind of God" could be understood as the mathematical laws governing the universe, potentially represented by a single, elegant equation.

The string theory cannot prove the existence of God either. String theory is a scientific endeavor to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. String theory conveys the idea that every particle of matter is actually the result of even smaller strings that vibrate. String theory describes space and time, matter and energy, gravity and light. String theory is a mathematical framework, but it currently lacks empirical evidence.

The concept of God as a supernatural alien is not a mainstream theological or scientific view, but it is a topic explored in science fiction and some fringe theories. Some argue that God is an extraterrestrial life form, an alien visitor from a highly developed extra-planetary civilization. These civilizations may be a Type VI Kardashev civilization, which exists beyond the multiverse, capable of controlling and manipulating the fundamental laws of multiple universes and even creating new ones. 

Can Science Prove the Existence of God? This is a complex question. The theologians point out that the question of God's existence may lie outside the purview of modern science by definition. Science offers many proofs from the physical universe, and scientific theories provide repeatedly testable explanations for natural observation. Scientific methods rely on observation and experimentation, which are not applicable to the supernatural Even physics cannot definitively prove or disprove the existence of God. relies on empirical evidence and the scientific method, while the concept of God is often a matter of faith and belief.

 

 

Holodomor—Ukrainian Famine and Genocide

 

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD 

The Holodomor (kill by starvation) was the first genocide that was methodically planned out and perpetrated. It was one of the gravest crimes against humanity. The Holodomor was a genocide by artificial famine. It caused an immense cultural trauma. Holodomor had prolonged psychosocial repercussions. The persons subjected to the Holodomor and survived showed higher levels of conformism, anxiety, phobias, behavior avoidance, and inner conflicts. Holodomor has an intergenerational impact. Holodomor represents intergenerational transmission of trauma. The survivors of the Holodomor genocide have transmitted it to subsequent generations, impacting their physical emotional well-being and behaviors. 

The term Holodomor refers specifically to the brutal artificial famine imposed by Stalin’s regime on Soviet Ukraine and primarily ethnically Ukrainian areas in the Northern Caucasus in 1932-33. In the spring of 1933, the rural population of Ukraine was dying at a rate of 25,000 a day, half of them children. The land that was known worldwide as the breadbasket of Europe was being ravaged by a man-made famine of unprecedented scale. 1.5 million Ukrainians fall victim to Stalin’s “dekulakization” policies.  

After the October Revolution and the rise of the Bolsheviks, the economic policy of War Communism lasted from the middle of 1918, when the Civil War broke out, until it was replaced by the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. War Communism involved the forced requisition of grain and output, and after the currency collapsed, it also involved a commitment to a nonmonetary economy. Acemoglu et al., 2010). Following these economic transformations and other reasons, a devastating famine descended on Russia in 1921. More than 25 million people were threatened by starvation and hunger-related diseases. 

The famine was centered in and beyond the Volga River valley and also in southern Ukraine. The best estimates of the death toll from the Great Famine of 1921 run from 5 million to 10 million people (Patenaude, 2007). As reported by Haller (2003), after the killing fields of the First World War, the political upheavals in Russia and elsewhere, and the rampant spread of disease among exhausted communities came the threat of food shortages that put an estimated 32 million lives at risk in Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia. In 1921, on top of the political chaos that caused the breakdown of whatever health services existed, the region experienced a devastating drought, leading to a generalized famine. In October of 1921, Volga refugees brought typhus and cholera to Ukraine, and in the next month, the whole country was swept by epidemics. The epidemics continued, on and off, throughout the whole period of the famine. Although no complete statistics are available on deaths from diseases, the epidemic cases were recorded by the hundreds of thousands, and their mortality rate was very high. The prime victims of the famine and the epidemics were children. They also were the main targets for kidnappings and cannibalism. A million children had been orphaned by wars and famine, and they had to fend for themselves as best they could since neither the state nor state-controlled charitable collectivize Gremyachy in one meeting (Russian Collectivization—George Beers). 

But in reality, collectivization caused massive collective trauma in Soviet society. Under the new legislation by Stalin, the farmers who lived in the countryside were labeled as Kulaks (wealthy landowners) and banished from their native land. Thousands were arrested and shot without any judicial proceedings. People became displaced and subjected to famine and disease. Hundreds of thousands perished due to Stalinist unplanned forced collectivization. Stalin deported or killed nearly five million peasants labeled as kulaks. Their equipment and livestock were sent to collective farms. Many of the remaining peasants were forced into collective farms to work, where they faced disease, starvation, and death. The effects of Stalin’s collectivization resulted in mass disruption of agricultural productivity and incalculable human losses. Collectivization lasted from 1928 until 1938, a decade of complete failure. Collectivization did not lead to agricultural production but rather to a famine that killed millions and the terror unnecessarily imposed on the Kulaks. Stalin’s Five-Year Plan for collectivization failed in a number of ways. Millions of people died of starvation, disease, and repression. (Russian Collectivization—George Beers).

References

Bezo B, Maggi S. Living in "survival mode:" Intergenerational transmission of trauma from the Holodomor genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Soc Sci Med. 2015 Jun;134:87-94. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.04.009. Epub 2015 Apr 15. PMID: 25931287.

George NS, Okeji FO, Iseghehi L. Beyond the Holodomor: Current hunger in Ukraine and global food insecurity. Public Health Chall. 2024 Jan 10;3(1):e149. doi: 10.1002/puh2.149. PMID: 40497074; PMCID: PMC12060754.

Jayatunge, R.M. (2016). PTSD in the Soviet Union. Godage Internationa Publishers. Colombo. 

Lumey LH, Li C, Khalangot M, Levchuk N, Wolowyna O. Fetal exposure to the Ukraine famine of 1932-1933 and adult type 2 diabetes mellitus. Science. 2024 Aug 9;385(6709):667-671. doi: 10.1126/science.adn4614. Epub 2024 Aug 8. PMID: 39116227.

Psychological Interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s Work

 

 

Written and Compiled by Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD 

The highly influential Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was instrumental in establishing world literature. He shaped Western literature by popularizing the vernacular language. He profoundly discussed political and social issues during his time. His discussions include rhetoric, moral philosophy, and political thought. He wrote on the human condition and explored themes of morality, sin, and redemption. Moreover, he captured a wide range of themes such as emotional suffering, interplay between reason, passion, and morality, human free will and human fatality.

Dante Alighieri's vivid depictions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in the Divine Comedy have profoundly influenced numerous psychological themes. His work represents the exploration of the human psyche and its moral transformation. He specifies human motivations and the consequences of choices. The Divine Comedy is a timeless story about love, faith, and justice. It is a reflective exploration of humanity. The Divine Comedy examines the vices of human nature and ramifications of tragedy.

Inferno opens on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300. Traveling through a dark wood, Dante Alighieri has lost his path and now wanders fearfully through the forest. These lines represent the fear of the unknown. It is a common human experience characterized by anxiety and apprehension towards uncertain situations or things that are unfamiliar. The uncertainty is governed by the inability to predict outcomes. Then the great Roman poet Virgil leads Dante through the gates of Hell. Virgil represents human wisdom and reason. Virgil is the representation figure of great learning and wisdom, embodying the power of human intellect and classical knowledge.

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the entire journey through the horrors of Inferno and the labors of Purgatory are framed by the desire for a reunion with the love of his youth, Beatrice (Matthew, 2022). His lost love Beatrice Portinari represents a powerful symbol of divine love and grace. She became a catalyst for his spiritual and artistic growth. Beatrice's untimely death created a deep void in his heart. In Dante's "Divine Comedy," Beatrice transitions from a historical figure to a powerful symbol. After her death, Beatrice became idealized love, divine grace, and spiritual guidance for Dante. Dante immortalized her, transforming her image into a heavenly salvation. 

Dante Alighieri's view of love is multifaceted, encompassing both earthly and divine. For him, love is a powerful force, capable of both elevating individuals to spiritual enlightenment and leading them to damnation. It is the ultimate force that moves the universe. It's the force that moves the sun and the other stars. Love guides him through celestial spheres. Love moves individuals towards spiritual growth. According to Dante, true love is something morally elevating. However, he is demonstrating the dual nature of love, capable of both creation and punishment. Lust may be intertwined with love; he distinguishes between true love and the excessive desire that leads to sin.

In Divine Comedy. Love has two faces. It can be a source of great joy and inspiration, but it can also lead to temptation and sin. Love is a force behind both salvation and damnation. In his essay "Dante's Idea of Love," Kenelm Foster explores Dante Alighieri's concept of love, emphasizing its spiritual and divine nature. The poem explores love and its capacity to elevate the soul. It also discusses its potential to lead to sin and damnation. Dante’s concept of love, both earthly and divine. It has more profound and complex meanings. In Dante's cosmology, divine love is a powerful and constructive force.

The Inferno explores the destructive nature of love when corrupted or misdirected. For Dante, the line between love and lust is crossed when desire becomes excessive and subordinates reason, leading to destructive actions and sinful behavior. For Dante, lust is a misdirection of love. It is characterized by excessive passion and a lack of self-control. In Divine Comedy, lust is described as a sin of excessive or uncontrolled sexual desire. Dante's illustration of lust emphasizes the psychology of desire. He condemns lust as a vice because it represents the sin of allowing carnal desires to overpower reason and judgment.

Dante Alighieri's views on sexuality can be regarded as pejorative, and they were widespread in his time. For Dante, homosexuality was a sin against nature. Dante, following the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, adopted Aquinas's framework for understanding morality. Thomas Aquinas, who was a prominent medieval philosopher and theologian, considered homosexual acts to be morally wrong. Dante's treatment of the punishment of homosexuals in Hell has direct connections with medieval Christian positions concerning homosexuality. In Dante's Inferno, the legendary Greek war hero Achilles is placed in the second circle of Hell, maybe due to Achilles' same-sex relationship with Patroclus. Dante maintained an orthodox theological notion of heterosexual lust.

The Divine Comedy highlights the importance of individual human experiences and moral choices. It’s a journey of personal growth and transformation. This work has historical, theological, and literary allusions. His work expressed strong emotions. The Divine Comedy explores a range of human emotions, including fear, courage, hope, love, compassion, desire, and joy. He portrayed humanist subjects in humanist style. The Divine Comedy reflected Renaissance humanism that moved with intellectual and cultural movement. He focused on human potential and achievements.

Dante believed humans are fundamentally social creatures, reliant on community and political structures for well-being and happiness. He embraced the Aristotelian view of human nature. He concurs with the freedom of choice that humans possess. He believed that humans are striving for self-improvement. Dante believed in the power of imagination. According to Dante, men are capable of generating their own reality.

Dante’s work demonstrated his deep interest in human nature. He discussed human nature through a detailed examination of its capacity for both great virtue and profound sin. According to Dante, humans are inherently social beings, striving for happiness, but also susceptible to pride, selfishness, and other flaws that lead to suffering and damnation.

Dante's work is a powerful exploration of human nature. Dante portrays human nature as inherently prideful, seeking only to benefit oneself. Through vivid depictions of hell, purgatory, and heaven, Dante examines human flaws, weaknesses, and the consequences of sin. Each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope. Dante emphasized that human beings ought to exercise their rationality. His work is characterized by a synthesis of faith and reason.

Dante’s work represents "medieval psychoanalysis," and he explores human emotions, motivations, and the consequences of actions. For instance, his Inferno can be viewed as a representation of the descent into the depths of the human psyche. He writes about the nature of sin, guilt, and the struggle for redemption and tries to offer universal truths about the human experience.

For Dante the human being is defined as a union of body and soul. Dante emphasizes rationality as a defining characteristic of humans, distinguishing them from animals.  Chessick (2001) indicates that Dante’s depiction of the human psyche, with its struggles against sin and its journey toward salvation, can provide valuable perspectives on psychological processes. Dante explores various emotions and their manifestations in Inferno, including fear, anger, and compassion.

In the Divine Comedy, free will is a central theme. Dante believed that humans are endowed with free will. Humans have the capacity to choose between good and evil, with consequences. The humans retain the power to make moral decisions that determine their eternal fate. Humans have the rational capacity to choose between right and wrong. They choose their paths to either heaven or hell through their actions in life. For Dante, it is emphasized that divine forces do not negate human free will and human choices have direct consequences. 

Sigmund Freud viewed Dante's journey through the afterlife in the Divine Comedy as a psychological journey of self-discovery and grappling with unconscious desires and conflicts. Freud's exploration of the vicissitudes of love and instinct, particularly his concepts of Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct), shares thematic parallels with Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, especially the Inferno.

For Freud, Dante’s work was reflecting the human psyche's structure, with the Inferno representing the depths of the unconscious and the id, while the ascent through Purgatory and Paradise mirrors the ego's struggle to integrate with the superego and achieve moral and spiritual growth. Through a Freudian lens, the Divine Comedy depicts the unconscious forces that drive human behavior and the hidden meanings within dreams and symbols. Both Dante and Freud explored themes of the unconscious, the nature of good and evil, and the journey of self-discovery.

Carl Jung viewed Dante's journey as a symbolic representation of the psyche's descent into the unconscious (Inferno), its purification and striving for wholeness (Purgatorio), and its eventual transcendence (Paradiso). He saw this as a parallel to the psychological process of confronting one's shadow, integrating the anima/animus, and ultimately realizing the Self. Jung had an interest in Dante's encounters with figures in the afterlife, and Jung interpreted them as symbolic representations of unconscious contents and archetypes. Jung emphasized that Dante's journey is not just a personal one, but also a representation of the universal human quest for meaning, wholeness, and connection with the divine. 

In Dante's Divine Comedy, there are a number of psychoanalytical symbols. The three beasts—leopard, lion, and she-wolf—symbolize sins and temptations, specifically lust, pride, and avarice, respectively. Virgil is a symbol of human reason, and Beatrice is divine love, all reflecting internal struggles and the journey towards self. The hierarchical structure of Hell itself can be seen as a symbolic representation of the different levels of sin and the consequences of choices.

Dante's portrayal of both heaven and hell demonstrates the full spectrum of human potential. Both places represent divine justice and the consequences of sin.

Dante's portrayal of heaven, found in his epic poem Paradiso, envisions a multi-layered cosmos where the blessed reside in concentric spheres surrounding the Earth. Dante's heaven culminates in the Empyrean, a realm of pure light where God resides, and the blessed experience perfect joy and unity with the divine will. Dante's portrayal of heaven is not just a depiction of a place but an exploration of the divine, the nature of love, and the ultimate goal of human existence. According to Dante, heaven is a hierarchy, a kingdom, and not a commune. It is a place for spiritual development. Paradise is out of the Earth.

Dante describes Hell as a funnel or inverted cone descending in nine diminishing rings until the center of the earth. The structure of Hell itself, with its nine circles representing different sins, provides a psychological map of the consequences of various vices. Dante wrote, “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

Dante explores the ideas of good and evil. In Dante's view, evil is not a positive force but rather a corruption or perversion of good, stemming from a turning away from God's will. Dante's concept of evil is deeply rooted in Christian theology. In Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy," evil is depicted as a force of corruption and perversion, manifested in the structure and inhabitants of Hell. Dante's journey through the Inferno explores various manifestations of evil, from sins of incontinence to treachery, with each circle representing a deeper descent into wickedness.

Dante's vision of the afterlife in the Divine Comedy influenced the Renaissance. However, Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy does not explicitly depict reincarnation as a part of the afterlife. Instead, his work focuses on the Christian concept of a fixed, eternal afterlife with heaven, hell, and purgatory. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the afterlife is a structured realm divided into Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). It's a place where souls are judged based on their earthly lives and experience varying degrees of punishment or reward.

In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, human suffering is a central theme, particularly in the Inferno. The poem explores various forms of suffering, both physical and psychological, experienced by sinners in hell. Beyond physical pain, Dante explores the psychological suffering of the damned, including despair, remorse (or lack thereof), and the torment of unfulfilled desires. In Dante's Divine Comedy, human suffering is depicted as a consequence of sin, both in the literal sense of hellish torment and in the purgative process of Purgatory. The Purgatorio (the second part of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy) explores the process of spiritual purification through suffering, highlighting how even painful experiences can contribute to one's growth.

Dante Alighieri's works offer a profound exploration of the human search for meaning. The poems delve into themes of morality, faith, and the consequences of choices, ultimately pointing towards a higher purpose and divine love. Dante explores the ethical implications of actions, highlighting the importance of reason, self-control, and the pursuit of virtue. He emphasizes the transformative power of love. His works provide profound insights into the human condition, and they're an allegory for the human experience based on universal human themes.

  

 

References

 Adela Abella. (2016) Psychoanalysis and The Arts: the Slippery Ground of Applied Analysis. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 85:1, pages 89-119.

Alighieri D. Il Convivio: [Excerpts]. Acad Med. 2023 Mar 1;98(3):330. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000005086. Epub 2022 Nov 8. PMID: 40317977.

Brockman.D.(2017). A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Dante's The Divine Comedy. ‎ Routledge.

Chessick RD. Dante's Divine Comedy revisited: what can modern psychoanalysts learn from a medieval "psychoanalysis"? J Am Acad Psychoanal. 2001 Summer;29(2):281-304. doi: 10.1521/jaap.29.2.281.17257. PMID: 11685992.

Jayatunge, R.M. (2016). Between Literature and Psychology. Godage International Publishers. Colombo.

Matthew (2022). Jung’s Anima and Literature Archetypes of Wholeness.

Maulana , M.R. (2024). Dante’s Inferno, LGBT-Q, and Christianity: A Closer Reading on Medieval Christian Perspective Regarding Homosexuality. Dunamis Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristiani 8(2):633-649 DOI:10.30648/dun.v8i2.1102.

The Evolutionary Origins of Faith in Humans

  

 

 

Faith is a belief and trust in and loyalty to a person, to a force, or to an institution. It is a strong belief or trust in something or someone, often involving acceptance of things that cannot be proven or directly observed.  

Religious faith is trust and belief in a deity, spiritual force, or religious doctrines. Religious faith often has no intellectual validation. It’s a belief without total scientific proof. Some skeptics indicate religious faith as belief without evidence. Secular faith does not rely on traditional religious doctrines or supernatural beliefs and puts more emphasis on human experience and rational explanations. Secular faith is built on a systematic way of acquiring knowledge about the natural world through observation and experimentation.  

Non-religious faith refers to a belief system, ethical framework, or worldview that is not based on religious teachings or supernatural explanations. It has a wide range of perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, and humanism. In non-religious faith, there is no traditional or supernatural sense; instead, there is faith in humanity's ability to reason.

The human has the capacity to seek meaning and explanations for the world around them. The origins of faith can be explained through evolutionary psychology and anthropology. Faith is intertwined with social structures, community dynamics, and cultural contexts. Social interactions, shared beliefs, group dynamics, and collective identity significantly influence individual faith.  A combination of evolutionary and cultural factors, including the development of imagination, gave rise to faith in humans.

People make sense of their social worlds through communication and social interaction, and this process is known as the symbolic interactionist perspective. In symbolic interactionism, faith is understood as a dynamic, socially constructed phenomenon shaped by ongoing interactions and interpretations. Faith is shaped by interpretations.

Religious symbols and rituals promote shaping faith in an individual. Through shared interpretations of symbols and participation in rituals, they augment the core beliefs and faith. According to symbolic interactionism, faith is not static. Because meanings are constantly being negotiated and reinterpreted.  

The concept of faith is shaped by societal factors and interactions. The concept of faith is not directly a biological adaptation. It emerged and evolved alongside other cognitive and social developments in humans.

The capacity to understand that others have their own thoughts, beliefs, and intentions evolved during the early stages of human evolution, specifically within the hominin lineage. (The hominin lineage refers to the evolutionary branch that includes modern humans and all our extinct ancestors since the split from the last common ancestor with chimpanzees). Early hominins exhibited ritualistic behaviors, which may be precursors to religious belief.  

Early humans developed faith through a combination of factors, including the need to explain the unknown and a sense of awe and wonder at the natural world. Some evidence suggests religious practices may have emerged in the Upper Paleolithic period (around 50,000 years ago). Australopithecus that lived in Africa from about 4.2 to 1.4 million years ago are categorized as pre-religious hominins.

Neanderthals lived from approximately 400,000 years ago to around 40,000 years ago and had proto-religious practices. It’s difficult to say that Neanderthals had a concept of faith; however, they had symbolic understanding of death and possibly an afterlife.  

Early humans attributed spirits or souls to natural objects and phenomena, leading to animistic beliefs and practices. They attributed agency to inanimate objects or natural events, leading to the development of religious beliefs. Furthermore, religion evolved to enhance group survival by fostering cooperation and reducing conflict.  

The Neolithic period began roughly 12,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture in the Near East and Mesopotamia. Neolithic religious beliefs focused on fertility, nature, and the cycle of life and death, with a strong emphasis on animism and ancestor veneration. In the Neolithic period (also known as the New Stone Age), the concept of “faith” emerged, and this is evident through various forms of religious practices and beliefs observed in archaeological findings.  

The Indus Valley Civilization, including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, which existed from approximately 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, had a religion that focused on nature and fertility. The key aspects of their faith were based on the Mother Goddess. Ancient Egyptian civilization, beginning around 3100 BC and ending around 30 BC, worshipped many gods and goddesses, each associated with specific aspects of life and nature. Their faith was based on polytheism.

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, believed to have been founded in the 6th or 7th century BC. It was a monotheistic religion. The key aspect of the Zoroastrian faith is its dualistic cosmology.  

Hinduism originated in the Indus Valley Civilization, around 2300-1500 BCE. Faith is a central aspect of Hinduism, and it centers around the belief in a supreme God, Brahman. The concept of Brahman is the ultimate reality and source of all existence.  

In Buddhism (which originated in the 6th or 5th century BCE), faith is a deep-seated confidence rooted in understanding and experience rather than blind belief. In Buddhism, faith arises from personal understanding and experience, encouraging exploration and insight rather than blind acceptance.  

In Ancient Roman (753 BC - 476 AD) religion was influenced by both Greek and Etruscan traditions. Their faith was expressed through a polytheistic religion focused on rituals, sacrifices, and the worship of numerous gods and spirits.  

Pre-Christian faiths encompassed a wide array of religious beliefs and practices. It centered on polytheism and nature worship. They worshiped multiple gods and goddesses. Their faith was based on animistic beliefs.  

The core belief in Christianity centers on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God and the savior of humanity. Faith is absolutely central to Christianity. In Christianity, faith is understood as a belief in God, particularly in Jesus Christ, and a trust in His promises and teachings.  

In Islam, faith, or Iman, is a fundamental concept encompassing belief in six core articles: God (Allah), His angels, His books, His prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree. Faith forms the foundation for all acts of worship and is a prerequisite for their validity.  

The relationship between faith and politics is multifaceted. Faith can impact people's views on social and political issues. Politicians can misuse faith by manipulating religious messages, facts, institutions, and sentiments to fulfill their egoistic political goals.

Faith has a profound impact on society. Faith offers a framework for meaning-making, hope, and connectedness. Sociology studies faith as a social phenomenon, examining its impact on individuals, groups, and societies. It analyzes how people's faith shapes social norms.

In psychology, faith is understood as a fundamental human phenomenon related to meaning-making, involving a belief system and trust in something beyond what is immediately apparent. Faith is a broader human capacity to imagine an ultimate environment and base one's worldview and actions on it.

In neuropsychological terms, faith is a complex cognitive and emotional process. Faith can influence brain activity and structure. Research indicates that religious beliefs can activate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with self-representation, emotional associations, and goal-directed behavior.

Faith is often believed to have a role in healing, and faith can facilitate healing. The placebo effect, stress reduction, and altered states of consciousness play a key role in faith healing. The power of belief influences physical and mental well-being. Psychological explanations focus on the mind's capacity to impact the body, including stress reduction, improved coping mechanisms, and even immune system activation.  

Faith is foundational to human civilization, providing individuals and societies with a sense of purpose, community, and resilience. Faith often brings people together, creating communities based on shared beliefs and values. It gives a sense of purpose and moral grounding. Faith can significantly impact mental health. Faith can reduce tension and anxiety, diminish self-blame, stabilize emotional status, and improve self-knowledge. Faith, in its various forms, provides a crucial foundation for individuals and societies in navigating the complexities of the future.

 (Written and Complied by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD )