In this presentation, I show that when people commit acts of interpersonal violence, they think they are doing something good, at least for themselves and sometimes for others, too. As I show, there is nothing wrong with their goal. Who doesn’t want the consequences of their actions to result in something good? The problem with violence is that perpetrators’ idea of good has harmful consequences for others, and, in the long run, often for themselves. Policies, programs, and treatment approaches are likely to be more effective if they are premised on the idea that the purpose of violent acts is to being about something good. Programs, policies, and practices would affirm desires to bring about good for the self but would work on alternative ways of achieving the good. If perpetrators of interpersonal violence dig deep enough and feel safe and protected as they do, they will change strategies and let go of their beliefs that violence is a viable and even valid way to attain something good for themselves. This article concludes with recommendations for next steps in understanding perpetrators of interpersonal violence and for new approaches to interventions.

1. Happiness Research,
the Autonomic Nervous
System, & Perpetrators
of Interpersonal Violence
Jane F. Gilgun, Ph.D., LICSW
jgilgun@umn.edu
School of Social Work
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
22 August 2014

2. Topics
Happiness Research
Autonomic Nervous System
Perpetrators of Interpersonal Violence
Meanings
Putting it All Together: Treatment
Responses

3. Definition of Happiness
We know it when we feel it
 A sense that one’s life is meaningful and
fulfilling
 Sonja Lyubomirsky: “the experience of joy,
contentment, or positive well-being,
combined with a sense that one’s life is good,
meaningful, and worthwhile.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HFL9MnGdrw#Sonja%20on%20what
%20is%20happiness

4. Qualities Associated
with Happiness
Good Relationships with Others
Manage Emotions Prosocially
Prosocial Beliefs/Moral Intelligence
Sense of Efficacy
Meaningful Work/Activities
Prosocial Actions
Being Mindful/in the Present

5. Qualities Associated with
Well-Being, a Synonym for
Happiness
 Connection
 Attunement
 Trust
 Autonomy
 Love-Sexuality
Source: Laurence Heller & Aline LaPierre: The NeuroAffective
Relational Model™ [NARM]

6. Components of Happiness
 Genes; 50%
 Life Circumstances: 10%
 Intentional activities that we can choose: 40%
 Arise from
 our interpretations of our experiences
 How we interpret experiences filtered through our
neurobiological make-up
Source: Sonja Lyubomirsky & Jane Gilgu

7. Definition of Neurobiology
 Neurobiology is genetics plus experience that
leads to formation of our nervous system
including neural circuits throughout the body

8. When These Components
are Compromised
 Sense of self may be threatened
We may dysregulate if something triggers us
We seek solutions to the dysregulation
 Solutions depend upon our interpretations of
prior experiences in combination with present
circumstances
 Beliefs a huge factor here
 Beliefs part of schemas

9. Reactive
& Instrumental Violence
 Reactive: occurs during dysregulation
 Instrumental: no dysregulation
 Note: beliefs underlie both types of violence
 Many people dysregulate, but a minority use
violence to re-regulate

10. Processes of Dysregulation
& Regulation
Automatic Activation of Memories
Dysregulation
Automatic Activation of Schemas
Re-Regulation Strategies
Pro-social Anti-Social Self-i
destructive
Inappropriate
Trigger Event
Search for Coping Strategies

11. Processes When
Dysregulation is not an Issue
Search for How To Get it
Bypass Prefrontal Cortex
Automatic Activation of Belief-Related Schemas
Pro-social Anti-Social Self-i
destructive
Inappropriate
Wanting Something

12. Beliefs
 Basis of both reactive & instrumental
violence
 Beliefs develop from interpretations of
prior experiences with input from
genetics
Most people with histories of complex
trauma do not have reactive
aggression/violence on a grand scale

13. Happiness as a Good Thing
Violence as a Good Thing
from Points of View of
Perpetrators

14. Guidelines for Judging
Ethics of Human Behaviors

15. Three Components of Good
 Excellence—doing something well
 Engagement--flow
 Ethics—care & benevolent consequences
Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi, and Damon (2001)

16. Moral Injury
Moral injury: “perpetrating, failing to prevent,
bearing witness to, or learning about acts that
transgress deeply held moral beliefs and
expectations.”
 Common among combat veterans who have
violated their own moral codes when they kill
or witness others killing and being killed
Source: Litz et al (2009)

17. Ethics & Moral Injury
 Also common among perpetrators of IPV
Most perpetrators of IPV have a moral code
from which they detach when they commit
acts of violence
When persons violate their own moral codes,
they risk moral injury.

18. Consequences of Moral Injury
 Shame
 Self-Hatred
 Anticipation of Rejection, Disgust, Disdain
 Behaviors Thought to be Solutions to a State
of Being Become Part of the Problem
 Not all perpetrators of IPV have moral
injury—an unknown percentage see no
moral issues in their acts of violence

19. The Autonomic
Nervous System

20. Autonomic Nervous System
 Automatic
 Usual Understandings of the ANS
 Newer Understandings
 Outside of our Awareness
 “Shadow Self”
 Freud’s Subconscious
 Internalizations of Interpretations of Experiences
http://www.loveandtrauma.com/videos (4.27 minutes)

21. Autonomic Nervous System
Where reactivity is—responses to stress &
external stimuli in general
Where beliefs systems are
 About self, others, & how the world works
 What it means to be me and who others are
 Entitlements
 Big me, little you
 What else?

22. Automatic Responses
Can Result in Good
 Intuition is accurate almost by definition
 Taps into subconscious wisdom
 Consequences of actions based on intuition are
benevolent
 Acting on impulse
 Can also be good in terms of consequences
 Or harmful in terms of consequences

23. From LeDoux (1996)

24. Accessing the Autonomous
Nervous System
 Requires the Safety of Secure Relationships
 In therapeutic settings, requires trust and
good working relationships with therapists
and in group work with other group members

25. Accessing the Autonomous
Nervous System
 Requires the Safety of Secure Relationships
 Personal Requirements in Therapy
 Willingness
 Preparation: Therapists teach about
 the process
 self-regulation skills

26. Accessing the Autonomous
Nervous System
 Techniques (a sample)
 Meditation
 Individual
 Group
 Guided
 Yoga/relaxation techniques/tai chi
 Journaling
 Physical Exercise, Funny Movies, Recreation
 Talk to Trusted Others

27. Sample Content of ANS
for Perpertrators of IPV
Many Beliefs are Embedded in the ANS
 Basis of automatic actions, or actions that bypass
the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
 Beliefs
 This is how I get what I want
 They deserve it/want it/like it
 You do what I say
 I’m entitled

28. Sample Content of ANS
for Perpertrators of IPV
 Beliefs
 This is how I get what I want
 They deserve it/want it/like it
 You do what I say
 I’m entitled
Meanings
 Subjective Experiences of Pleasure
 Stopping Someone Else’s Unwanted Behaviors
 Instrumental Goals

29. Meanings of Violence
to Perpetrators

30. Violence as Good: Three Outcomes
that Perpetrators
Seek
 Brings Pleasure and Release
 Stops Unwanted Behaviors
 Resolves Problematic Situations by Enforcing
Rules that Targets of Violence May or May
Not Share

31. Pleasure & Release:
“It feels good.”
 “I love people to dress me up.”
 “Rape is worth giving up a bundle for.”
 A rush—arm full of dope
 Incest: Bliss & Lasting Love
 I’m on Top
 A Way of Feeling Better
 Anticipation of Sexual High
 Like an Elephant Drops off Back (Release)

32. Cessation
of Unwanted Behaviors
 Chuck: Stop wife Elise from turning off the
xBox in front of life-long friends
 Herb: Not in mood to flirt
Mitchell: The rampage

33. Violence as Good:
Instrumental Goals
 Resolve problematic situations
 Enforce rules of drug and prostitution trades
 Enforce rules of what happens to unfaithful wives
 Killing kids for their own good
 Killing kids to get back at wife (recent case in
Israel)

34. Other Good Outcomes
for Perpetrators
 revenge, teaching a lesson, enforcing rules
 self-protection, righting a wrong,
 getting something over with, shoring up their
self-respect,
 solving a problem.

35. Where Does Interpersonal
Violence Come Fron?
 Pro-violence ideologies that are widely held & well-represented
in mass media and in millions of
individuals
 Persons internalize these ideologies
 Long-term non-sharing of personal, painful issues—
lack of emotional expressiveness
 Disconnection from humanity of others and of the self
at time of violence
 No effective challenges to activated thoughts/images
that lead to harm of others

36. • What to Do?
Treatment Approaches
Involve Connecting to
& Managing the ANS
Best ways to Access ANS is
through meditation & relaxation
techniques
Sharing of What Persons
Access in the ANS

37. Treatment Goals:
Reactive Aggression
 Self-Regulation
 Foundational changes in ANS
 Create High Road Responses
 Reason, emotion, actions connected
 Connection to consequences/ethics
 For self
 For others
 Connect to Physical and Emotional Core That
Reside in the ANS
 Mindfulness: The internal flow of experience

38. Instrumental Violence
 Persons who commit instrumental violence
 are unlikely to have moral injury
 are unlikely to have issues with self-regulation
when reminded of instrumental violence
 They can still benefit from working with content of
the ANS

39. Some Therapeutic Principles
 Dual awareness
 Content of client narratives
 Emotional/physiological responses
 find and work with areas of pleasure
satisfaction, or better functioning
 Help clients stay connected to their
physiological responses when they have
them
Source: Heller & Lapierre (2012)

40. Possible Components
of Therapy
 Use These at Beginning & Throughout
Therapy
 Identify Positive Resources
 Teach Self-Regulation Skills for Reactors
 Includes Meditation and so Fits Instrumentalists

41. Approaches That Access ANS
 Group, Individual Work, & Family Work
 Relationships (Perlman, NARN, Common Factors
Model)
 Teach Self-Regulation Techniques First
 Psychological safety is first
 Very Brief Guided meditation in Group Settings
 Share content of ANS with Trusted Others
 Homework
 Identify & challenge belief systems of external environment
 Concept maps
 Identifying positive resources

42. Possible Components of
Treatment of Moral Injury
 Connection—Therapeutic Relationship
 Therapists imagine the kinds of experiences that have
led to the moral injury (!!!!!)
 Therapist neutrality
 Educate & Prepare Clients for the Process
 Brief Exposure/A Kind of Meditation
 Examination Meanings & Implications
 Dialogue with a Benevolent & Respected Person
 Reparation/Good Deeds

43. Treatment of Moral Injury
For Persons Who Have It
 Reparation & Forgiveness
 Fostering Reconnection
 Long-Term Planning
Source: Litz et al (2009)

44. Daily Practice
Meditation half hour a day on positive
emotions such as kindness and compassion
 This changes the brain & ANS
 Gratitude
 Forgiveness
 Relationships
 Savoring present moment

45. Possible Framework
 Group Work
 3-4 members
 Identify positive resources
 Relaxation exercises
 Guided meditation—a few minutes
 Check-in; Need any self-regulation?
 Share content of meditation
 Relaxation exercises
 Identify positive resources

46. Daily Practices
Regarding Actions
Write About/Meditate on
 Positive consequences
 Negative consequences
 Are consequences worth it?
 What would happen if you did the opposite?
 Talk to someone about what you’d like to do
 Like your grandmother
Wait at least two days

47. Possible Framework
 Imaginary Conversations with Admired Other
Persons
 Sharing in Group
 Connecting and Reconnecting with
Spiritually-Based Groups
 12 step groups
 Spiritual communities
 Learning to Do Something Really well

48. Summary
 Perpetrators of IPV Seek Something Good
For Themselves
 Source of Violent Actions is in ANS
 Violent Actions Violate Ethical Principles
 Can Result in Moral Injury
 Treatment Goal: Access ANS
 Approaches to Do So
 Raise awareness of content of ANS
 Mindfulness exercises

49. References
Athens, Lonnie (1997). Violent criminal acts and actors revisited. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Gardner, Howard E., Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, & William Damon (2001). Good work: When excellence and
ethics meet. New York: Basic.
Corrigan, Frank M., J.J. Fisher, & D. J. Nutt (2011) Autonomic dysregulation and the Window of Tolerance
model of the effects of complex emotional trauma. American Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(1), 17–25.
Gilgun, Jane F. (1995). We shared something special: The moral discourse of incest perpetrators. Journal of
Marriage and the Family, 57, 265-281.
Gilgun, Jane F. (1999b). Fingernails painted red: A feminist, semiotic analysis of "hot" text, Qualitative Inquiry,
5, 181-207.
Gilgun, Jane F. (2008). Lived experience, reflexivity, and research on perpetrators of interpersonal violence.
Qualitative Social Work, 7(2), 181-197.
Gilgun, Jane F. (2013a). Brokenness, Beliefs, and Spirituality. Amazon Kindle.
Happiness Research website: http://www.amazon.com/Brokenness-Beliefs-Spirituality-Jane-GILGUN-ebook/
dp/B00DVMVUGW
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness/definition
Heller, Laurence & Aline LaPierre (2012). Healing developmental trauma. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books
Katz, Jack (1988). The seductions of crime. New York: Basic.
Litz, Brett T. et al (2009). Moral Injury and moral repair in war veterans: a preliminary model and intervention
strategy,” Clinical Psychology Review 29 (8), 695–706, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19683376
Lyubomirsky, Sonja (2008). The how of happiness. New York: Penguin
Pargament, Kenneth I. (2007). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy. New York: Guilford.