June 2023 Courage in Action
There has been improvement over the past half century, but clearly there is so much work remaining.
Sexual harassment and assault – and the related institutional betrayal – can be found in every type of institution. One type that I know particularly well is sexual harassment in science. I know about this as a researcher, a member of national advisory committees, a mentor, a consultant to lawyers on legal cases, and from personal experience.
Fortunately there has been improvement over the past half century, but clearly there is so much work remaining. I shared my perspective on how far we’ve come and how institutional courage is a key solution moving forward in an important new article, Sexual Harassment Still Pervades Science, published this month in Scientific American.
A few excerpts from the Scientific American article with my quotes are here.
First, on the topic of institutional betrayal:
But a bigger part of the problem is how universities and academic institutions approach sexual harassment—as a liability they need to protect themselves from, rather than something that they should be protecting their communities from. Trainings reflect that, says Jennifer Freyd, an expert on the psychology of sexual violence and founder of the Center for Institutional Courage.
“They’re not looking at the big picture of doing the right thing, and often not actually even reducing lawsuits,” she told us. She says this approach doesn’t work, and instead creates “a culture of distrust” for victims at the institution.
On the problem with mandatory reporting which so often produces institutional betrayal:
Another issue is mandatory reporting—where university policy dictates that an employee must report suspected harassment, even if the victim doesn’t want the report. . . . Freyd calls this a double victimization; the harasser or the person committing the assault is trying to take power away from their victim, and any policy forcing someone to report harassment when so much is at stake robs that victim of their agency.
On effective reporting policies and responses to disclosure:
According to Freyd, the proper response from anyone the victim tells about the experience includes: avoiding blame or invalidating the victim’s experience, attentive listening, and allowing the victim to remain in control of decision-making. Reporting should be confidential and outside a power structure that could negatively affect the victim, and the victim should have control over how the information she has provided is used.
On the harm of institutional betrayal:
When Havell reported a recent incident to her employer, she submitted a statement and affidavits that backed up her allegations from four witnesses who were colleagues. And just as Freyd described, Havell’s report caused her further trauma when university leadership gave that information to her harasser…
And finally, on the promise of policies and laws that nurture institutional courage:
The recently passed bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act is another legislative win. . . [T]he act appropriates $32.5 million to combat sex-based harassment in STEM. . .Freyd is “very pleased” about this progress: “It is based on evidence and forward looking, with a heavy emphasis on investing in research on sexual harassment—research that will pay off in the years ahead…. It is significant to see the reality of sexual harassment in STEM recognized in this way.”
Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage
May 2023 Courage in Action
A recent article in Nurse Leader, written by Katherine Brewer, explores institutional betrayal and courage in the nursing profession.
For a decade, researchers have been exploring institutional betrayal and institutional courage—now, its popularity is surging. Most studies so far have examined education-related institutions and their responses to sexual violence. However, more research is now being carried out in other areas and situations.
A recent article in Nurse Leader, written by Katherine Brewer, explores institutional betrayal and courage in the nursing profession. Her article titled, “Institutional Courage: An Antidote to Institutional Betrayal and Broken Trust,” reviews a 2020 study. In this study, nurses filled out the Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire for Health. Brewer reveals the study’s finding: “nurses who experienced at least 1 act of betrayal on the part of the organization had higher levels of burnout, job dissatisfaction, and absenteeism.”
[Two nurses in Texas] reported a physician at their hospital for fraud and negligent medical practice. The nurses had witnessed the physician in question falsifying patient documentation, leading to patient safety concerns. They decided to submit an anonymous report to the state medical board; however, when the hospital discovered the nurses were the sources of the complaint, they retaliated against them.
Brewer notes that while institutional betrayal has highly negative consequences, there is a solution: institutional courage. She ends her article urging every institution we rely on, from nursing and education to policing, to embody institutional courage:
Organizations who can be dedicated to listening, responding, and acting to their members, and take conscious efforts to repair the wounds of the past, can be held up as models of courage.
Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage
April 2023 Courage in Action
No matter what happened in the past in a disputed allegation, the use of DARVO in the present is associated with harm.
On April 15 I flew to Louisville Kentucky so I could deliver a plenary address at the 40th annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. My lecture was all about individual and institutional DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim & Offender), a tactic that can be used to deflect accountability when confronted with a wrongdoing.
In my plenary I described findings from several of our scientific articles about DARVO – much of it led by Courage Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Sarah Harsey – which points to this key finding: no matter what happened in the past in a disputed allegation, the use of DARVO in the present is associated with harm.
Freyd & Harsey at the ISSTD meeting in Kentucky
Recently, Dr. Harsey and I have asked the research question: what do we know about who uses DARVO? In the April issue of the Courage Brief, Dr. Harsey partially answered this question when she wrote about a newly completed project that revealed those who use DARVO are more likely to have personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
Dr. Harsey and I will present more of our new research in June in Denver, Colorado at the conference of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. There we will share our striking discovery that DARVO use is strongly associated with believing rape myths and perpetrating sexual harassment.
In August at the American Psychological Association 2023 Convention in Washington, DC, we will present data that explore whether DARVO responses are associated with culpability.
Why are we traveling around the country to share these new DARVO findings? Our prior research indicates that education about DARVO helps reduce its harmful impact. We plan to research ways to prevent DARVO as well as to heal its wounds. In the meantime, we will keep spreading the word as education is a key step of institutional courage and a core mission of the Center for Institutional Courage.
Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage
March 2023 Courage in Action
On “We Can Do Hard Things” hosted by best-selling author Glennon Doyle . . . .co-host, Amanda Doyle, accurately explained my concept of betrayal blindness.
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
One simple act of courage can have a ripple effect of radical change that transforms our world.
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
Institutional DARVO: when rape victims are prosecuted after reporting their assault . . .
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