Critical Thinking: Can Childhood Trauma Cause Someone To Develop Extreme Views?

When the term ‘extreme views’ is mentioned, all kinds of things could enter someone’s mind. They could think about what they last heard from the mainstream media, or what they last heard from the alte
ative media.

Then again, their mind could give them clear examples of extreme views without them needing to think about anything they have heard about recently. This is not going to be a surprise considering the fact that, for many years now, a lot has been said about this topic.

A Lot of Exposure

Thanks to the amount of attention that this topic has received over the years, it can seem as though the world is full of people that have extreme views. One thing that played a part in this was undoubtedly the terrorist attack that took place in 2001.

After this took place, the mainstream media told anyone who would listen that the attack was carried out by people who had extreme views. And based on what took place, it would be hard to deny that whoever it actually was who orchestrated and carried out the attack had extreme views.

Other Examples

However, if terrorism is put to one side, it doesn’t mean that one will struggle to think of other examples. What could also come to mind are the views that some people have when it comes to men and women.

Someone like this can believe that all men/women are a certain way, and they may even believe that they need to be removed from the planet. But, if it doesn’t relate to a gender, it could relate to people that have a certain skin colour or who belong to a certain religion.

One Conclusion

When it comes to someone who has a view like this, or any other, it could be said say that they are full of hate. At times, there will be a lot of people that come to this conclusion; while at others, there will be fewer people that do.

One reason for this is that in certain societies or parts of society, views like this will be accepted as the truth. It is then not that a view like this is extreme or hateful; it is just that these people are aware of ‘how things are’.

Stepping Back

If, for example, someone has been able to take a step back after being caught up in an extreme view, they could say something similar. When they were caught up in this view it might not have been seen as extreme, and if so many other people had the same view, why would it?

To use an analogy: It would have been as though they had been exposed to a bad smell for a little while, only to forget that the bad smell was still around them. What would have stood out to someone who had only just come into contact with the smell would have been something that they were oblivious to.

Dressed Up

What also allows someone to live in denial over their own hate is the fact that they will have a mind that will allow them to rationalise their behaviour. They can end up coming up with all kinds of reasons that ‘prove’ they are right.

This can take place through using statistics and recent stories that back up their view, whatever that may be. It won’t matter that their mind is constantly looking for that which it believes to be true, as it will be as though they are just observing what is going on ‘out there’.

Stuck In a Loop

Therefore, even if they were to acknowledge the hate that they have, they will be able to justify it. They will feel as they do because of what a certain group of people are doing ‘out there’, which is why they have every right to feel as they do.

Unless they are able to question what they believe and to see how their exte
al world is mirroring back what is taking place internally, there will be no reason for them to change. They will ‘just happen’ to become aware of statistics, news stories and conversations that validate what they believe.

A Closer Look

The big question is: why would someone experience life in this way? Firstly, if someone is focused on what is going on ‘out there’ and doesn’t have a strong connection to themselves (lacks self-awareness and self-knowledge), it could show that they have experienced trauma.

The reason for this is that when someone experiences trauma their whole system can end up being overwhelmed, causing them to disconnect from their body. In addition to losing touch with how they feel, they can end up projecting how they feel into others.

Back In Time

This could be something that they have experienced during their adult life, or it could go back to what took place during their formative years. If it goes back to their formative years, it will mean that this took place when they were totally powerless and completely dependent on others.

This may have been a time when they experienced some kind of abuse and/or neglect, with them being traumatised on a weekly, if not daily, basis. The years would have passed but how they felt during these moments would have stayed inside them.

Replaying The Past

Many years will have passed since that stage of their life, and they may now have a well-developed mind that will allow them to rationalise their behaviour and provide ‘evidence’, but as they haven’t dealt with what took place, it will continue to affect their life. The hate that they see ‘out there’ can be a reflection of the hate that is deep inside them – hate that they feel towards their own caregiver/s or whoever else it was who harmed them - that they haven’t dealt with.

Trying to deal with the hate that is ‘out there’ will allow them to indirectly get revenge on the person or people who violated them. So, unless they deal with what is actually fuelling their behaviour and how they perceive the world, they will always need someone or something ‘out there’ to hate.

Conclusion

What this illustrates is the effect that early trauma can have on someone’s life when it is not dealt with. The experiences will be in the past but how they felt during that time will have stayed in their body.

In addition to seeing the parts of themselves that they have disconnected from in others, how they feel will have created a resonance that causes them to have experiences that match up with how they feel. For this to change, they will need to develop self-awareness so that they can start to see how their inner world is affecting their outer world.