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Remote Trauma

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According to the mass media, internet is either a paradise for pedophiles, the place where legions of frustrated people vent their aggression, the apotheosis of the “post-truth” etc.

The web is full of garbage, but if you push it aside, you can find excellent contents such as this article by Philip Di Salvo that helps us to understand some gray areas of Western democracies. Here the USA are considered.

In analyzing different aspects of the development of war at a distance, Di Salvo focuses his attention on how the psyche of drone pilots is affected by the summary executions they carry out. He says that the act of killing although mediated by a screen and a joystick is the same and that the sense of safety only sharpens the killer’s emotional burden.

I wonder whether the people who are responsible for military strategies and have on their conscience – much more than the executors- a large number of victims, suffer from the same post trauma stress as the pilots. If not, it would imply that hierarchical distance softens the sense of responsibility much more than physical distance.

See also:

Depression

Illustration of a state of overwhelming exhaustion. Done with a tablet and Krita.

Introflection

The somewhat desperate image of an inner excavation undermined by the fear that there may be nothing to find: no unconscious, no answer.

Dissociation

In this illustration – in a mirror that explodes – there is the reflection of a state of mental separation.