Corporal Punishment and Conspiracy Theories: A Match Made in Hell
A discussion post on the long-term impacts of corporal punishment that shape us personally -- and politically
Welcome to STRONGWILLED, the multi-media project centered on helping survivors of Religious Authoritarian Parenting methods process their pasts, find solidarity, and develop autonomy. Today is our monthly post for our paid subscriber community. Next week we will have a podcast episode out and then back to a regular chapter.
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“The painful punishment of children creates the nuclear core of rage, resentment, and aggression that fuels fantasies of the apocalyptic end of the world. This has been true at least from the early seventeenth century to the present. The most consistent thread connecting apocalyptics generation after generation has been the experience of pain, assault, and physical coercion resulting from harsh corporal punishments in childhood.” Philip Greven, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse
Philip Greven was a historian who became interested in how Protestants disciplined their children in the Americas, starting in the 1600s. Eventually, he was so moved by his research that he ended up becoming an advocate against child abuse in all forms, but especially religious child abuse. While later chapters of STRONGWILLED will dive into his research more, today we wanted to highlight Greven’s insight into the long-term impacts of corporal punishment on children. In his book Spare the Child, Greven lays out the consequences of corporal punishment on children as such:
Anxiety and Fear
Anger and Hate
Empathy and Apathy
Melancholy and Depression
Obsessiveness and Rigidity
Ambivalence
Dissociation
Paranoia
Sadomasochism
Domestic Violence
Aggression and Delinquency
Authoritarianism
The Apocalyptic Impulse
While we don’t have the space to go through all of these impacts in detail, today we wanted to focus in on a few we find are especially relevant to the community here at STRONGWILLED: dissociation, paranoia, and apocalyptic thinking.