A psychosocial exploration of activists’ work against violence against women and girls. The leader of our strategic initiative in support of organisations working with or going through overwhelming experiences, Dr Milena Stateva, presented at the 2013 British Sociological Association Annual Conference.

1. The
Violent
Enigma
of
Gender
Psychosocial
explora/ons
of
violence
against
women
and
girls
and
the
work
of
women
human
rights
defenders
and
their
organisa/ons
A
discussion
paper
by
Dr
Milena
Stateva
and
Dr
Barbara
Williams
Dr Milena Stateva
The Tavistock Institute
m.stateva@tavinstitute.org
www.tavinstitute.org
Dr. Barbara Williams
Bureau Kensington Inc, Canada
bjwilliams@look.ca

2. This
paper
• Outlines
ways
in
which
the
problem
of
refusing
violence
can
be
addressed
from
a
psychosocial
and
psychoanaly/c
perspec/ve.
• Complements
and
ques/ons
exis/ng
studies
based
on
the
no/on
of
an
oppressive
patriarchy.
• We
do
so
by
exploring
symbolic
dimensions
informed
by
psychosocial
theories.
• We
use
‘psychosocial’
(and
psychoanaly/c)
in
the
broad
sense
of
what
cons/tutes
this
field.
• We
used
in
the
process
of
explora/on
our
own
experiences
of
working
together.

3. The
ques6ons
we
asked
ourselves
• What
is
‘ac/on’
in
the
area
of
violence
against
women?
• If
we
formulate
the
ac/on
of
women
human
rights
defenders
as
a
labour
of
care,
what
can
we
learn
from
interpreta/ons
of
gender
and
gender
discourse?
– Historical
and
sociological
perspec/ves?
– Psychosocial
and
psychoanaly/c
theorising
of
gender?
– What
is
the
discursive
func/on
women
human
rights
defenders
enact
in
re/fusing
violence
and
asser/ng
care?
• How
can
organisa/ons
that
support
women
human
rights
defenders
become
performa/ve
and
symbolic
loci
of
love
and
intersubjec/vity?

4. What
is
‘ac6on’
in
the
area
of
violence
against
women?
• Ac/on
is
not
simply
a
product
of
any
gathering
of
people
together
nor
necessarily
their
inten/on.
• It
is
a
symbolic,
rela/onal
and
communica/ve
ac/vity.
• Following
Arendt’s
theory
of
praxis,
it
can
be
said
that
ac/on
takes
place
in
a
space
where
people
can
appear
as
poli/cal
subjects
and
where
they
can
think
together.
• In
this
sense,
ac/on
is
not
necessarily
a
fight
or
a
rebellion.
• It
may
well
be
a
resistance
to
systemic
injus/ces
through
care
–
care
for
oneself,
care
for
other
women,
care
for
the
rela/onships
between
people,
care
for
peace,
care
for
the
environment
and
care
for
the
future.
Being
poli/cal
in
this
way,
care
can
be
an
ac/on
and
we
will
explore
its
components
below.

5. Historical
and
sociological
perspec6ves
• Following
Joan
ScoR’s
work,
we
propose
a
cri/cal
distance
from
the
gender-­‐mainstreaming
inherent
in
the
1995
UN
Conference
on
Women
and
the
NGO
deployments
of
gender.
• A
cri/cal
ethics
of
care
‘regards
all
people
as
embedded
in
networks
of
rela=onships.
Rela=ve
powers,
degrees
of
agency,
and
moral
responsibili=es
are
mediated
through
these
rela=onships’
(Robinson,
2011:81).
• Emphasises
‘responsibility
and
responsiveness
to
others
as
prac=ce
of
contemporary
ci=zenship’.

6. Psychosocial
&
psychoanaly6c
theorising
of
gender
• Gender
as
a
‘floa=ng
signifier’
that
enacts
and
relies
on
spli`ng.
• Gender
is
not
‘achieved’
through
conscious
decidability
but
must
be
‘decided’
none
the
less
to
‘seRle’
the
trauma/c
nature
of
becoming
a
self.
• And
further,
that
this
‘becoming’
‘always
occurs
in
the
context
of
a
rela=on
and
yet
is
an
unconscious
registra=on
of
otherness’
(Gozlan,
2011,
p.1).

7. • Gender
iden/ty
is
situated
in
a
landscape
of
turbulent
emo/ons.
• They
are
born
by
the
original
trauma
of
birth,
which
is
experienced
by
the
baby
as
annihila/on
and
thus
paradoxically
as
death.
• The
process
of
dealing
with
this
primordial
trauma/c
experience
is
regulated
through
the
(m)other’s
ability
to
hold,
contain
and
reverie.
• These
processes
of
interac/ons
and
needs
for
containment
are
re-­‐
enacted
throughout
life
and
provide
a
useful
reference
understanding
emo/onal
and
psychic
exchanges
between
adults
and
their
own
babies,
between
adults,
between
adults
and
groupings,
including
organisa/ons
and
communi/es.
• And
not
simply
the
task
of
‘mothering’.
Psychosocial
&
psychoanaly6c
theorising
of
gender

8. • There
are
very
few
social
and
cultural
mechanisms
that
can
support
and
care
for
children
and
later
adults
in
living
with
and
benefi/ng
from
the
uncertainty
and
complexity
of
their
subjec/ve
worlds.
• The
historically
developed
binary
division
of
genders
as
the
organising
principle
of
fashioning
a
self
on
a
societal
scale
trauma/zes
iden//es,
rigidifies
social
roles
and
has
tended
to
relegate
and
denigrate
‘care’
to
women’s
work.
• The
consequences
might
be
considered
a
prime
star/ng
point
for
re/thinking
and
understanding
the
prevailing
gender-­‐
based
violence.
Psychosocial
&
psychoanaly6c
theorising
of
gender

9. If
the
trauma=c
uncertainty
of
gender
is
its
condi=on,
in
what
way
can
refusal
of
its
embodied
violence
and
viola=on
against
women
and
a
re-­‐imaging
of
care
become
possible
-­‐
a
care
which
is
not
patronising
nor
puJng
women
in
a
vulnerable
posi=on
to
be
exploited
in
this
capacity?

10. An6gone
• Our
star/ng
point
for
exploring
the
refusal
of
violence,
relates
to
contemporary
Lacanian
poli/cal
and
feminist
theorists.
• Turn
to
the
figure
of
An/gone:
she
is
viewed
as
the
image
of
‘woman’,
who
breaks
the
spell
of
the
‘father’s’
‘legacy
of
ra/onalism,
rule
or
governmentality,
or
hierarchical,
naturalized
patriarchal
power’.
• An/gone
was
the
daughter
of
Oedipus
and
Jocasta,
best
known
through
the
story
by
Sophocles:
upon
the
death
of
one
of
her
brothers,
considered
a
betrayer
by
Creon
(king
acer
the
death
of
Oedipus
as
his
brother),
An/gone
refuses
to
accept
her
uncle’s
decree
that
her
brother
not
receive
burial
rights.
She
defies
her
uncle,
claims
a
rela/onal
impera/ve,
is
imprisoned
and
dies
at
her
own
hand.

11. An6gone’s
Claim
• An/gone
is
an
alterna/ve
to
Oedipus,
‘a
bearer
of
true
feeling
possessed
of
a
true
ethical
compass,
powerfully
disobedient
to
tyranny,
tone
deaf
to
imposi/onal
law.
She
represents
the
an/-­‐
patriarchal
devotee
of
the
natal
over
conjugal
family
form;
a
great
lamenter
and
lover
of
the
equal
brother
whom
she
grieves
and
buries
at
no
small
risk
to
herself’.
• The
Oedipus
story
is
based
on
a
collusion
in
which
everyone
is
‘turning
a
blind
eye’
to
what
is
implicitly
known
–
collusion
to
go
with
the
flow
of
what
is
pre-­‐determined
by
‘des/ny’
(Steiner,
1985;
1990).
This
collusion
is
re-­‐enacted
societally
due
to
organising
no/ons
of
self
and
iden/ty
around
the
figure
of
Oedipus.
• By
challenging
the
no/on
of
des/ny,
feminist
authors
provoke
and
offer
an
alterna/ve
through
An/gone’s
story:
a
re-­‐union
rather
than
conflict,
based
on
what
Butler
calls
‘kinship
between
life
and
death’
as
a
basis
for
individual
iden/ty
and
ac/on
that
are
grounded
in
an
ethics
of
care.

12. An6gone’s
symbolism
• Historically,
there
has
been
a
resistance
to
and
repression
of
An/gone’s
claim
–
the
claim
of
the
unconven/onal,
the
revolu/onary
yet
non-­‐violent
(although
admiRedly
self-­‐destruc/ve
as
An/gone
hangs
herself).
This
resistance
serves
to
maintain
a
world
that
is
based
on
the
impossible
to
resolve
Oedipal
conflict,
the
collusion
surrounding
it
and
the
prohibi/on
on
challenging
des/ny.
• Through
the
no/ons
of
permeability
and
interdependency,
object
rela/ons
theory
offers
a
body
of
work
that
can
further
flesh
out
this
mode
of
being
in
Otherness.
This
is
the
model
of
a
femininity
that
is
a
part
of
an
ocen
repressed
maleness
too
–
the
capacity
to
contain
and
to
be
contained.
It
is
formed
in
the
very
beginning
of
the
human
life
in
each
one
of
us
and
cons/tutes
a
basis
for
all
human
and
social
rela/ons.

13. What
is
the
discursive
func6on
women
human
rights
defenders
enact
in
re/fusing
violence
and
asser6ng
care?
• An/gone’s
mode
of
being
is
embodied
today
by
many
women
human
rights
defenders’
work
to
undermine
a
predominantly
phallocra/c
order
and
culture.
• They
do
this
by
endeavouring
to
change
ways
of
thinking,
behaving,
rela/ng
and
ac/ng
of
individuals
and
groups.
• Ocen
however
they
themselves
are
subject
to
effects
of
modernity
and
late
modernity:
focus
on
ra/onality
and
effec/veness,
cause-­‐and-­‐effect/linear
reasoning,
resis/ve
of
unconscious
processes
and
all
the
perils
of
a
‘bureaucra/sed
management’.

14. The
struggling
An6gone
• This
may
seem
inevitable
in
a
neo-­‐liberal
context
in
which
values
are
driven
by
market,
and
ac/ons
by
funding.
• The
effects
of
bureaucra/c
principles
of
efficiency
and
objec/vity
allow
for
liRle
aRen/on
to
the
power
imbalances
involved
in
decision
making
and
goal
se`ng.
• A
policy-­‐making
and
organisa/onal
cultures
that
learn
from
and
incorporates
func/ons
such
as
love
(Levinas),
holding
(WinnicoR),
reverie
(Bion),
and
repara/on
(Klein)
offer
an
alterna/ve
to
the
contemporary
rather
narrow
tac/cal
ways
of
tackling
complex
social
problems.

15.
Women
human
rights
defenders’
organisa=ons
as
performa=ve
and
symbolic
loci
of
love,
intersubjec=vity,
reverie
and
containment

16. The
trouble
with
love
• The
ways
we
experience
love
are
important
because
they
are
an
‘intensifica=on
of
the
powers
of
the
inten=onal
object
to
shape
subjec=ve
experience
in
novel
ways’
by
direc/ng
the
inward
outwards,
the
subjec/ve
towards
the
social
realm.
• As
such
it
is
the
very
opposite
and
perhaps
a
countervailing
power
to
the
workings
of
suffering
seen
as
‘intensifica=on
of
the
subjec=ve
with
a
corresponding
diminu=on
of
the
objec=ve
and
the
non-­‐self’
(Benson,
2001:161).
• Love,
alongside
solidarity,
is
a
self-­‐transcending
ideal
‘which
requires
that
one
should
be
for
the
well-­‐being
of
others’
(ibid:
173).

17.
Re/valuing
Intersubjec6vity
• Such
a
project
of
reworking
and
rethinking
calls
for
reconsidering
as
a
first
step
the
status
of
the
subject.
• This
re-­‐thinking
happens
in
the
light
of
our
inter-­‐relatedness
–
Fineman
(2008),
Butler
(2004),
Bergoffen
(2003)
and
Staudigl
(2004;
2010).
• Of
par/cular
importance
is
Levinas’
work,
who
delves
deeply
into
the
origins
of
our
humanity
to
find
at
its
core
a
primordial
vulnerability
and
derives
from
there
a
new
‘assump/on
of
responsibility’
in
the
face-­‐to-­‐face
encounter
to
reinvent
ethics,
but
as
a
‘first
philosophy’.

18. Intersubjec6vity
in
Levinas’
work
• The
face-­‐to-­‐face
encounter
is
experienced
as
being
called
by
and
responding
to
another,
a
primordial
hospitality
that
is
phenomenologically
the
basic
feature
of
our
inter-­‐relatedness.
• It
stems
from
recognising
vulnerability
-­‐
in
hospitality
we
respond
to
the
call
of
the
other’s
vulnerability
and
at
the
same
/me
make
ourselves
vulnerable.
• Hospitality
thus
originates
in
an
eros
that
differs
from
possession
and
power
and
is
a
‘prototype’
of
the
encounter
with
the
radical
alterity
of
the
other
person.

19. Object
rela6ons
and
intersubjec6vity
• Containment
(Klein)
and
holding
(WinnicoR):
a
nurturing,
caring,
and
uncondi/onal
func/on
of
the
mother.
• The
transi/onal
space:
an
addi/onal
independent
space
within
the
individual
mental
life:
‘It
is
in
the
space
between
inner
and
outer
world,
which
is
also
the
space
between
people
[…]that
in=mate
rela=onships
and
crea=vity
occur’.
• Reverie
(Bion):
the
capacity
to
sense
(and
make
sense
of)
what
is
going
inside
in
individual
being
taken
care
of.
It
is
a
specific
capacity
to
imagine
what
is
going
in
the
inner
world
of
another
human
being.

20.
Love
as
the
core
of
ethics
of
care
• Extension
of
the
‘mothering
func/on’
to
society
–
to
a
collec/ve
responsiveness
to
the
unconscious
developmental
needs
of
one
another
and
society
-­‐
of
the
care
system
to
its
members,
of
the
governing
structures
to
its
people
and
the
organisa/ons
it
governs.
• Social
ins/tu/ons
as
structured
to
provide
a
necessary
but
frequently
ineffec/ve
defence
against
primi/ve
anxie/es
which
the
work
itself
provokes
(Menzies
Lyth,
1986).
• Crea/ng
structures,
systems
and
prac/ces
of
thinking,
ac/ng
and
caring
which
act
in
ways
to
mi/gate
the
violence
which
flows
from
en/gendered
anxie/es
and
from
women
human
rights
defenders’
claims
against
violence.

21. Women’s
rights
organisa6ons
as
loci
of
love
and
intersubjec6vity
• Society
has
built
a
range
of
structures
to
model
care,
holding
and
containment
as
the
challenges
get
increasingly
difficult
to
cope
with
by
individuals
and
their
immediate
surrounding.
• Very
ocen,
however,
organiza/onal
structures
themselves
become
the
source
of
secondary
anxie/es
producing
defences
that
impede
their
own
containing
func/oning.
• This
may
be
par/cularly
facilitated
by
the
drive
for
efficiency
and
the
consequent
over-­‐ra/onalis/c
bureaucra/za/on
embedded
in
the
modernity
project

22.
Enabling
the
body
of
the
organisa6on
• Develop
on-­‐going
learning
opportuni/es
that
explore
collec/ve
psychical,
social
and
poli/cal
determinants
of
violence
against
women
and
its
effects
on
ac/vists.
• Develop
organisa/onal
structures
as
a
matrix
type
organisa/on,
with
fluid
processes
and
hierarchy
• Leadership
in
which
‘authority’
acts
as
a
containment
rather
than
a
control.
• Ensure
that
self-­‐care
is
regularised
and
sustained.
• Develop
systema/c
means
to
review
and
re/think
organisa/onal
cultures
which
work
in
a
produc/ve
way
with
the
dynamics
of
compe//on,
envy,
and
dysfunc/onal
aggressions.