National Self Concept and the Iraq Prison Photos

Iraq Prison Photos from the Perspective of Self Concept

When pictures of coalition soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were first published around a year after the Iraq war ended, public reaction on both sides of the Atlantic seemed to pass through identifiable stages, stages which I think are interesting to consider from the standpoint of national and individual self concept. Muslim reaction, from what little I know of it, sampled through the eyes of British media reports, appeared to focus on the role of Iraqis as specifically Muslim victims and the role of coalition soldiers specifically as oppressors of Muslims. The end result in both cases, I believe, favours the defence of preexisting ideas over the broadening and deepening of our understanding of the nature of human beings — and ignores some empirical facts from psychology research conducted over thirty years ago.

First Reaction: Denial, Doubt and Apprehension

Much of the initial media reaction to early allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse, particularly in the United Kingdom, seems aptly characterised as denial and doubt. While rightfully using phrases like ‘alleged prisoner abuse’ to reflect the fact that these really began as allegations, rather than as proven crimes, the tone of both print and broadcast media seemed to me unmistakably skeptical. (As it happens, early photos allegedly showing British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were in fact ultimately proven with certainty to be fakes.) At the same time, there was a clear undertone of worry and apprehension about how truly awful it would be if the allegations should turn out to be true.

From the standpoint of self concept, one might say that the ‘national self concept’ of both Britain and the United States does not include any potential whatsoever to abuse other human beings. (By ’self concept’, I do not mean merely ideals, or aspirations, but rather what a person or nation conceptualizes itself actually to be, in the real world.) That self concept probably includes something along the following lines: we carry ourselves with honour, we treat others humanely and fairly, and we certainly do not abuse prisoners. When confronted with a possible challenge to that self concept, in the form of allegations that coalition soldiers had in fact abused prisoners, the initial reaction of denial and doubt could be understood as a reaction to protect that self concept, to defend it against any need to update it or emend it. The apprehension could be understood as discomfort with the possibility that we might not be quite who we conceptualize ourselves to be. Both reactions could be understood not just on a national level, but also on a very personal level, as responses to a threat against our own personal concepts of ourselves as fundamentally decent, humane people — people who certainly would not do such a thing if we found ourselves in a similar sort of position.

Follow-Up Reaction: Isolation, Confinement and Condemnation

Almost immediately after it became clear that the Iraq prison photos were legitimate, and it became clear just how likely it was that real crimes had been committed, denunciations and condemnations of the crimes began in earnest. Of course these crimes are condemnable! But what I would like to draw attention to is how frequently the sentiment was voiced, by a wide range of public figures, that these soldiers had let down their country or their branch of the armed forces. Over and over again, we heard that this is not what America stands for, that these people had tarnished the reputation of the United States, that they had reflected poorly on the good and honourable men and women of the armed forces, and many similar messages. Of course these things are true! But again, it is interesting to notice how important it has seemed to so many people to defend a preexisting national self concept by separating out these crimes and isolating them. In other words, the self concept does not seem to have been emended to include something like "and sometimes we abuse prisoners" — which is, of course, the actual fact of the matter. It has instead been preserved in its preexisting form, virtually unscathed, while the perpetrators of these crimes are vilified as gross exceptions to that rigid self concept.

Let me say that again for emphasis: it is a fact that coalition military personnel sometimes abuse prisoners. Arguments about how this is morally wrong, or about how it shouldn’t be that way, or about how it isn’t representative of the behaviour of the vast majority of military personnel, or about how these were just isolated incidents, or about how this does not match our ideal behaviour — none of these arguments alters this fundamental fact in any way.

On a personal level, the reaction seemed to be not only that this is not what we are as a country, but this is not what I am as an individual: those people are not like most people here in this country, and we certainly would not ever commit such crimes! Again, this differs from merely condemning the crimes; this is isolating those crimes and distancing ourselves from them as something with which we have no real fundamental connection.

Desired End Reaction: Putting It All Behind Us

And as of this writing, the predominant sentiment regarding Iraqi prisoner abuse seems to be a wish to get it all over with: get all the photos and all the allegations out in the open, deal with them via court martial, and move on. From the standpoint of self concept, this could be understood as representing the final separating off of that threat to our self concept: by getting all those threats out in the open and prosecuting all perpetrators, by dealing with ‘them’, we can effectively weather the storm and get back to the self concept with which we’re comfortable. We can look once again to that solid self concept to help remind us who we are, unperturbed by the actions of those who clearly are not part of ‘us’.

Muslim Reactions to Iraqi Prisoner Abuse

Meanwhile, the Muslim media reaction and that of Arab media in general has been conveying its own sense of complex and heartfelt public reaction. I am not by any means well versed in Muslim or Arab culture, and I would not pretend to have any grasp of the subtleties and nuances of Islamic public reaction to the Iraq prison photos. However, one message certainly came through clearly from video footage of angry protesters on the streets of major Arab cities, a message which is no mere nuance: namely, that Americans had abused Muslims. Protesters shouted angrily not about crimes against humanity, or even crimes against Iraqis, but about crimes against Muslims. Situated within the context of a couple of thousand years of Arabs, Persians, and Iraqis in particular getting a bad deal at the hands of Western Europeans (and the British in particular), this might not be too surprising, but again what I would like to emphasize is that the public reaction seems to have conceptualized the victims as Muslims first, human beings second. In other words, the victims have been identified primarily as members of a specific grouping of people — a grouping with a self concept which undoubtedly includes an awareness of having been historically victimized by ‘the West’ — rather than primarily as members of the broad set of all people.

From the standpoint of ideas about self concepts, this reaction serves to reinforce a preexisting self concept of Muslims as those who are victimized by ‘the West’. Whereas those in ‘the West’ experienced a threat to their self concept and reacted so as to isolate that threat and preserve their preexisting self concept, I would suggest that the Muslim world instead found reinforcement of their preexisting self concept.

In both cases, but in clearly different ways, each group of people lost an opportunity to see themselves more accurately not as Americans or British or Muslims, but as members of the human race.

The companion article on “Human Behaviour in Experiments and the Iraq Prison Photos” explores the perhaps uncomfortable reality on which, in my view, both groups have missed out, a reality which includes the facts that 1) whether or not the victims of the Abu Ghraib crimes were Muslim was probably utterly irrelevant to the crimes’ having taken place, and 2) the abusive behaviour of prison guards may well be typical of people placed in that situation, rather than anomalous. More than 30 years of psychology and social science research suggests that it is not the abusers in contexts like the Abu Ghraib prison who are the exception and who are most unlike us ‘normal’ people; it is those who refuse to engage in such behaviour who are the exception.

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