March 2023 Courage in Action

You may already know about the popular podcast We Can Do Hard Things hosted by best-selling author Glennon Doyle. I was so pleased to learn that on a recent episode of the podcast, the frequent co-host, Amanda Doyle, accurately explained my concept of betrayal blindness. From the podcast transcript:

Amanda Doyle: Okay. So I came across this when I was thinking about you, and I find it fascinating. This woman, Dr. Jennifer Freyd, she discovered and named this phenomenon of betrayal blindness and this idea that you do not allow yourself to see the reality of what is going on. Because if you did, the information would threaten the relationship on which you most depend.

Amanda Doyle: So it’s really logical when you think about it. Some ways you can berate yourself like, how did I not accept that? But if the person who betrays you is someone on whom you depend, then you essentially need to ignore the betrayal. Because responding to it further threatens your attachment. And if you’re dependent on them, therefore-

Glennon Doyle: You’re right not to.

Betrayal blindness is a key concept in Courage’s Knowledge Base. It is the unawareness, not-knowing, and forgetting of betrayal traumas. Victims, perpetrators, and witnesses may display betrayal blindness, often without realizing they are doing so, in order to preserve the relationships, institutions, and social systems on which they depend. Betrayal blindness is part of why institutional betrayal persists.

Having betrayal blindness explained on We Can Do Hard Things is a step toward awareness and, consistent with our mission to generate and disseminate knowledge, an important step toward institutional courage.

Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage

February 2023 Courage in Action

I am excited to share with you a new article from members of the Courage Team. In it we show how research can lead organizations toward institutional courage.

Led by Courage Board Member Dr. Jennifer Gómez, a group of Courage researchers and educators – including me - along with other colleagues, published an article: “Institutional Courage in Action: Racism, Sexual Violence, and Concrete Institutional Change.”

Our article describes a workshop event that happened in person on 18 March 2022 at Stanford University: the 2022 Center for Institutional Courage: Racism, Sexual Violence, and Institutional Courage Workshop. It was an exciting day in which 27 scholars and advocates discussed institutional courage in action with a focus on addressing institutionalized racism, inequities, and sexual violence. The first half of the day consisted of research presentations on institutional courage (Jennifer Freyd), the theory of racialized organizations (Victor Ray), and cultural betrayal trauma theory (Jennifer Gómez). The second half of the day applied this basic knowledge through a fireside chat discussion of institutional courage in action across inequalities and institutions: employing anti-racist approaches in research with Black families (Beverly Weathington), addressing campus sexual violence with male college athletes (Brenda Tracy), tackling salary inequity in academia (Jorge Delva), and addressing racism and sexism in the workplace using the small wins model (Lori Nishiura Mackenzie).

Our article discusses our learnings from this workshop – both the research and the concrete ideas. We acknowledge the difficulties in making profound change but we end on a note of hope:

“Finally, we discovered than even within these hardships, the fight for systemic change through institutional courage is absolutely worth it. One simple act of courage can have a ripple effect of radical change that transforms our world. Furthermore, the process of people coming together to be courageous is beautiful, even when the sought-after success remains unattainable. As Weathington stated, ‘When a flower doesn’t bloom, allow yourself to see the beauty of the bud.’ May we behold both the beauty of the struggling bud and the thriving flower within institutional courage.”

Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage

January 2023 Courage in Action

Starting this month Courage has a revised communications schedule. The Courage Brief will be sent out on a quarterly basis. In addition, starting with this letter, each month I will plan to send you a short update, Courage in Action, highlighting a recent development.

In our recent Ms. Magazine article, Deny, Attack, Blame: The Prosecution of Women Reporting Rape, Courage Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Sarah Harsey and I discuss the problem of women who report sexual assault in good faith being investigated—and criminally charged—themselves.

In 2008, an 18-year-old Washington woman, referred to as Marie, reported to police that she had been raped by a man who broke into her apartment during the night and bound and gagged her (details here). The police didn’t believe her, and she was charged with making a false police report. Marie ultimately agreed to a plea deal that included probation, a fine, and forced her to attend counseling for lying.

It wasn’t until years later that police in Colorado, after searching a serial rapist’s home, found a photo of Marie bound and gagged in her apartment. If police had believed Marie in 2008, perhaps the additional rapes by the perpetrator would have been prevented.

Marie is not an isolated case. When rape victims are prosecuted after reporting their assaults, the criminal justice system commits a particularly egregious form of institutional betrayal by engaging in institutional DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender). The potential for this type of betrayal is often more than enough to discourage victims from seeking justice.

What can we do about this? Research indicates police officers tend to greatly overestimate how common false rape reports are and may misinterpret common victim responses as signs of dishonesty. We can avoid this error in judgment through education. Similarly, research suggests that knowing about DARVO reduces its negative impact. Courage is committed to education about these matters as a core part of our mission to foster institutional courage.

Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage