Why your child may kill you
The death of Dr. Joseph Kazigo, at the hands of his son, struck most Ugandans with intense shock. Most people could not understand why Mulumba Kazigo,26, killed his father.
By Oscar Bamuhigire
The death of Dr. Joseph Kazigo, at the hands of his son, struck most Ugandans with intense shock. Most people could not understand why Mulumba Kazigo,26, killed his father.
People were further shocked by the fact that another son of Dr. Kazigo supported his brother’s action. It later turned out that Dr. Kazigo was physically abusive to his family. This brings sharp clarity to this otherwise ambiguous scenery of tragedy.
Psychiatrists and psychologists explain that people, who have been victims of child abuse, are more likely to become physically abusive in adulthood. Alice Miler has proven, through her work, that much criminal behaviour is ‘acting out’ behaviour also referred to as re-enactment. This means that an offender was once abused in the same way he abuses others.
John Bradshaw, in his book, Healing The Shame, explains: “Children from violently abusing families and children from families where high voltage abandonment takes place, suffer terrible victimisation. They generally either take on a victim role and reenact it over again or identify with their offender and re-enact the offence on helpless victims.
In light of the abuses that Dr Kazigo’s family experienced, it is not surprising that three of his children are suffering from mental illnesses.
“The repression of injuries endured during childhood is the cause of psychic disorders and criminality,†writes Alice Miller in her book The Drama Of The Gifted Child. When children are abused, they are forced to repress their feelings because their abusive parents would punish them if they didn’t. “How can you say that about your parents?†most adults will scream at a child who speaks out about the abuse done by his parents.
“In fact, most illnesses are nothing other than a language permitted the abused child, as represented by the adult body,†writes Miller. Without professional intervention, the future of Dr Kazigo’s family is bleak. Miller says the repression of brutal abuse experienced during childhood drives many people to destroy their lives and those of others.
“In an unconscious thirst for revenge, they may engage in acts of violence like burning homes, businesses and physically attacking other people using their destruction to hide the truth from themselves and avoid feeling the despair of the tormented child that they once were,†she says.
The tendency to be abusive, if untreated, is passed on from generation to generation, as the abused child grows up to become an abused father.
“Those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings,†writes Miller in her book For Your Own Good, “Those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation and those whose souls are murdered will murder.â€
Dr. Kazigo must have been abused as a child in the same way he abused his children. His children will more likely abuse their children in the same way he abused them.
Abusive parents are subconsciously punishing their children for the actions of their own parents that they were not able to defend themselves against. Those who don’t abuse their children, often abuse other dependants, for example their patients. Psychiatrists have proven that people who are abused tend to join the ‘helping’ professions, for instance, medicine, psychology/ psychiatry, the prison, police, teaching and religion (in Germany, statistics revealed that 60% of German terrorists were children of protestant ministers).
Unfortunately, most people don’t want to acknowledge the fact that they were abused as children. They either repress such abuses or create excuses and justifications for them, referring to them as necessary disciplinary action taken against them by their parents.
“The more we idealise the past and refuse to acknowledge our childhood sufferings, the more we pass them on unconsciously to the next generation,†warns Miller
Many Ugandans attempted to justify Dr. Kazigo’s abusive actions as a necessary form of disciplining children. Such abuse is wide spread in Uganda and many children have grown up under abusive forms of corporal punishment at school and at home. Psychotherapists say there is no justifiable form of beating. All beating is psychologically damaging.
Miller sums this up as “…our earliest experiences unfailingly affect society; psychoses, drug addiction and criminality are encoded expressions of these experiences.â€
Ends
The death of Dr. Joseph Kazigo, at the hands of his son, struck most Ugandans with intense shock. Most people could not understand why Mulumba Kazigo,26, killed his father.
People were further shocked by the fact that another son of Dr. Kazigo supported his brother’s action. It later turned out that Dr. Kazigo was physically abusive to his family. This brings sharp clarity to this otherwise ambiguous scenery of tragedy.
Psychiatrists and psychologists explain that people, who have been victims of child abuse, are more likely to become physically abusive in adulthood. Alice Miler has proven, through her work, that much criminal behaviour is ‘acting out’ behaviour also referred to as re-enactment. This means that an offender was once abused in the same way he abuses others.
John Bradshaw, in his book, Healing The Shame, explains: “Children from violently abusing families and children from families where high voltage abandonment takes place, suffer terrible victimisation. They generally either take on a victim role and reenact it over again or identify with their offender and re-enact the offence on helpless victims.
In light of the abuses that Dr Kazigo’s family experienced, it is not surprising that three of his children are suffering from mental illnesses.
“The repression of injuries endured during childhood is the cause of psychic disorders and criminality,†writes Alice Miller in her book The Drama Of The Gifted Child. When children are abused, they are forced to repress their feelings because their abusive parents would punish them if they didn’t. “How can you say that about your parents?†most adults will scream at a child who speaks out about the abuse done by his parents.
“In fact, most illnesses are nothing other than a language permitted the abused child, as represented by the adult body,†writes Miller. Without professional intervention, the future of Dr Kazigo’s family is bleak. Miller says the repression of brutal abuse experienced during childhood drives many people to destroy their lives and those of others.
“In an unconscious thirst for revenge, they may engage in acts of violence like burning homes, businesses and physically attacking other people using their destruction to hide the truth from themselves and avoid feeling the despair of the tormented child that they once were,†she says.
The tendency to be abusive, if untreated, is passed on from generation to generation, as the abused child grows up to become an abused father.
“Those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings,†writes Miller in her book For Your Own Good, “Those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation and those whose souls are murdered will murder.â€
Dr. Kazigo must have been abused as a child in the same way he abused his children. His children will more likely abuse their children in the same way he abused them.
Abusive parents are subconsciously punishing their children for the actions of their own parents that they were not able to defend themselves against. Those who don’t abuse their children, often abuse other dependants, for example their patients. Psychiatrists have proven that people who are abused tend to join the ‘helping’ professions, for instance, medicine, psychology/ psychiatry, the prison, police, teaching and religion (in Germany, statistics revealed that 60% of German terrorists were children of protestant ministers).
Unfortunately, most people don’t want to acknowledge the fact that they were abused as children. They either repress such abuses or create excuses and justifications for them, referring to them as necessary disciplinary action taken against them by their parents.
“The more we idealise the past and refuse to acknowledge our childhood sufferings, the more we pass them on unconsciously to the next generation,†warns Miller
Many Ugandans attempted to justify Dr. Kazigo’s abusive actions as a necessary form of disciplining children. Such abuse is wide spread in Uganda and many children have grown up under abusive forms of corporal punishment at school and at home. Psychotherapists say there is no justifiable form of beating. All beating is psychologically damaging.
Miller sums this up as “…our earliest experiences unfailingly affect society; psychoses, drug addiction and criminality are encoded expressions of these experiences.â€
Ends