Violence and Dissidence. Political Imprisoned Women In The Former GDR

As Ingrid Miethes (1999) study of the biographical background of former East German oppositional women has shown, there is a strange connection between experienced violence in the family and the genesis of dissident behavior in totalitarian systems like the former GDR. It is remarkable that one can find quite similar phenomena in our study of the biographical backgrounds from women who have been imprisoned for political reasons. There seems to be deep connection between violent social relationships mainly to male persons and the development of a dissident action scheme. In the presented paper will be argued that dissidence in totalitarian systems is not (only) based on a specific psychological character trait, but primarily a reaction based on biographical experiences (such as violence trajectories) and their relation with social frames. These frames are potentially built up by social discourses, like the socialist female stereotypes and are processed through biographical work (Riemann & Schütze 1991), which is influenced of violent experiences. For these women it is neither possible to adopt political indoctrinated worldviews nor to emancipate from cultural stereotypes. This results in “damaged social frames”, which made these women incapable to find neither private niches, nor active actions schemes in the GDR. Violence, this is the central thesis made here, can damage social frames and results thus in a disorientation and passivity. This leads to the strange consequence that a private crisis can lead to political persecution in dictatorships like the GDR. 

Literature:

Riemann, G. &  Schütze, F. (1991): „Trajectory“ as a basic theoretical concept for analyzing suffering and disorderly social processes In: Maines, David R. (Hrsg.), Social Organization and social process. Adline De Grumer: New York. S.333-358

Ingrid Miethe (1999), Frauen in der DDR-Opposition. Leske + Budrich: Opladen