It is a well-known fact that the celebrated and famous singer of our century, Elvis Presley was haunted by survivor’s guilt due to his twin brother’s death at the time of their birth. A Psychological Biography of Elvis Aaron Presley written by Peter Whitmer outlines how Elvis’s guilt of surviving his brother’s death was the cause behind his projection of an image that was completely unique via his music. Being a clinical psychologist, Whitmer wrote, ”the same forces that flowed together” to create patient’s ”maladaptive, and ultimately self-defeating, adult behaviors were also the very ones that would stimulate his creativity.”
The concept called survivor’s guilt refers to the feelings of guilt and shame felt by a person who survived some type of dreadful events. The term encompasses different views; the guilt is often related to the factor that the other person survived (even if a bit damaged) the traumatic event whilst others were not so lucky and it also refers to the feelings of guilt that arise due to the notion that the person could have taken some action or done something different during the event which might have changed its drastic outcomes. The guilt tends to haunt the survivor and makes them question their nature, worth, and motives in life.
Originally, it was not considered to be a concrete phenomenon, but William Netherlands was the first one to term it as “survivor’s syndrome” when he was working with survivors of the Holocaust in 1961. Being a psychoanalyst, he concluded that if a person survives a traumatic event, they will have serious physical and psychological consequences depending upon the severity, the enormity and exposure of the event.
As we previously mentioned, there is not much literature to be found on the survivor’s syndrome as psychologists are still conflicted about it, but there are some clues/symptoms that are agreed upon in the community. The symptoms range from anxiety, guilt-ridden dreams, flashbacks, shame, mood swings, difficulty getting sound sleep, disorientation, lack of motivation and low self-esteem to depression, social anxiety, suicidal ideation, intense fear, headaches, palpitations, etc. It is notable that these symptoms are often experienced due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but it is possible to have all of these symptoms independent of PTSD.
On 16th December of 2014, the nation saw one of the most ruthless and horrific incidents of all time; terrorists attacked Army Public School in Peshawar and killed 141 students. The students who survived this horrific ordeal did not come out of it unscathed, many were physically injured but all of them were psychologically scarred.
One of the students who survived the attack was Irshad Hussain, who passed away 2 years after the incident due to his physical injuries that he suffered during the accident. There is a high probability that he was suffering from survivor’s guilt as his family members commented that his entire personality changed after the incident and many of his behavioral changes showed symptoms of survivor’s guilt. His family members said, “After he was shifted back home, we saw changes in Irshad.” People around him could notice that he was becoming isolated with time and one of them said, “He started to spend time in his room alone because the massacre had badly affected his mental health,”
Another survivor, Ahmed Jan, suffered from flashbacks of the bloodied bodies of his fellows and difficulty in adjusting to life back at school after he lost his brother during the attack. Kashan Zaheer, whilst escaped with a bullet in his leg, continued to suffer which was evident in his bursts of anger and lack of motivation. His case resonates with survivor’s guilt as he commented to his mother that he wished that he had been martyred that day with his friends rather than surviving the horrific ordeal. The life of Malik Hassan Awan would never be the same as he lost his brother and friends during the shooting. It is reported that he suffers from extreme fear if he hears the sound of bullets being fired. He said, “I have lost nine friends. I cannot study without pain in my head.”
When the news of the attack came, groups of psychologists and psychiatrists gathered to diagnose and treat the people who were affected by the attack. They found that all of the survivor’s carried different notes of survivor’s guilt as they all felt guilt at having survived whilst others were ashamed of themselves as they felt that they could have done a lot more to save their friends and family. One of the children that were interviewed by the team was found to have extreme dissociation from reality that led to him suffering from a short-term memory disorder which was an extreme sign of trauma. Many of the survivors showed signs of anger and wanted to join the army just so they could get revenge on the militants that caused the deaths of their friends and this anger in itself is an indication that the children were not only suffering from loss but were also feeling guilty at being alive.
The survivors of the militant attack continue to strive to cope with their losses and move on from it, but their stories indicate that they experience from multiple symptoms of survival syndrome and possibly PTSD too. A keynote to take away from this is that most of the times, survivors tend to blame themselves, even though they are not at fault but their intense feelings of guilt blind them from seeing the truth. If not treated, there are consequences of the survivor’s guilt syndrome, which can not only be exhausting for the survivor but also increase the chances of developing different sorts of psychological disorders and behavioral problems.
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