Introduction
Social constructs mold the behavior of individuals to a great extent. The Hiding Place is a description of the societal constructs that had molded the beliefs and actions of Corrie and her family and they had ultimately triumphed over hatred and won the healing power of forgiveness. The book exemplifies the triumph of God’s teachings over human psychological actions and reactions to a situation. The story is a memoir of the toils that the protagonists went through but remained true to their beliefs and endeavors. This essay captures the social-psychological issues demonstrated in the book and the social constructs that had been ingrained in the characters to make them behave the way they did. The essay will provide a brief summary of the book followed by an analysis of the book on the basis of the social psychological theories in order to demonstrate how religion and religious beliefs influenced individual actions challenging the social and psychological constructs of the protagonists.
Story in the book
The Hiding Place relates the story of the ten Boom family during the Second World War. The book is a personal memoir of Corrie and her experiences through the holocaust, the youngest of the three ten Boom sisters. The book also presents Corrie’s personal statement of her faith as a Christian. The story begins in 1937 with the 100th birthday of the watch shop. At this party, Corrie received the first hint of her future, when Willem (who had been preaching of the dangers of Nazism as early as 1927) arrived at the party with a Jew, who had just escaped from Germany. When Germany invaded Holland in May 1940, the ten Booms began to resist the Occupation. The ten Boon families engaged in helping their Jew friends by hiding them to safety. This stemmed from the family’s strong Christian beliefs. But their anti-Nazi operations from Beje soon came to an end when a Nazi spy found about their operations and a raid was made on the house. The whole family was taken prisoner and sent to concentration camp. Corrie was sent to Scheveningen, a Dutch prison that was used by the Nazis for political prisoners. The story reveals that all the family members of Corrie were released except for her sister who was being held in another cell, and her father. A coded letter from Nollie revealed that the hidden Jews were safe. Corrie was the only survivor. Her sister and father died in the concentration camp, others who were left to go, died, or were killed outside the prison. But even though the ordeal, Corrie and her sister kept their faith. In every camp, the sisters used a hidden Bible to teach their fellow prisoners about Jesus. Instead of feeling anger, she pitied the Germans, sorrowful that they were so blinded by hatred. She yearned to show them the love of Christ but died before the war was over. Once the war was over, Corrie used the Beje, along with a donated mansion, and even an old concentration camp, to minister those hurt by the war. Corrie’s own faith was put to the test, when, after preaching in Germany, she met a former guard who humiliated her sister. It is then she decided that God’s love could conquer all.
The story is a revelation in terms of God’s will taking precedence over human psychology and social conduct. For example, what many Christians throughout the world know of the Holocaust is what they know through the story of Corrie ten Boom. It is a moving testament to a family of devout Protestant Christians who offered their home as a refuge and hiding place for fugitives and those hunted by the Nazis. The efforts of the ten Boom family are reported to have saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews.
The close connections between the ways of God as being the right path have been demonstrated in the story which majorly rejects many of the social psychology theories. Forgiveness, as preached by Christianity, is the moral the story relates. Forgiveness may be defined as the overcoming of negative affect and judgment toward the offender, not by denying ourselves the right to such effect and judgment, but our development of compassion and love regardless if there has been an acknowledgment of the offender or not (Worthington & Worthington Jr., 1999). In the cognitive system, the offended may realize he or she has a right to negative emotions, yet is willing to let them go. The individual chooses to let go of thoughts of revenge and anger he or she holds towards the offender. As one moves along the continuum, more positive thoughts emerge until the offended begins to wish the other person well and can ultimately view him/her with respect as a moral equal (Cunningham, 1985). Concerning the behavioral realm, one begins to move in a more harmonious community with the other. Instead of refusing to communicate with the offender, the individual is now willing to meet with the offender and develop a new relationship. As the forgiver completes the forgiveness process, he/she experiences an inner release of negative thoughts and feelings and a healed relationship. These traits of cognitive theory have been demonstrated by the protagonists Corrie along with her family. Even though the Nazis ruled, Holland was a nightmare for the Jews and the Christians, their Christian beliefs forced them to help their Jewish friends. And it is their Christian belief of forgiveness that was shown to the germen soldier who had humiliated Corrie’s sister Betsie in the prison.
The power of forgiveness
The power of forgiveness transforms a human being a helpless victim of situations into a powerful co-creator of reality. This teaches us to see people with fresh eyes, and with compassion, and understanding. Research has shown that that the wrongdoing of an offender is an objective reality and not just a perception of the victim (Worthington & Worthington Jr., 1999). Kahrhoff (1988) believes that the event itself is neutral and that we give meaning to the event according to our perceptions. According to psychological theories, unconscious motivations are strong factors in how humans react to the world. Human beings see the world through their chosen lenses. These lenses which also serve as a filter for their unconscious needs and tortured and imprisoned and have not engaged in any emotional healing would be detrimental to the entire process.
The entire process begins when human beings allow themselves to look at their personal psychological defenses and to feel anger, hunger, and pain. Till the time this is attained, we stay trapped in an emotional undercurrent. The defense mechanism in human beings that cultivates a feeling of aversion and foreboding for others is broken once they indulge in self-inquiry. As individuals undergo denial and repression of our pain, sadness, and anger, which are buried within our psyche build hatred I us. But once the pain and suffering are openly faced individuals gain courage and strength. Corrie and Betsie faced excruciating pain while in the prison. But they remained faithful towards their faith and faced the pain openly as had Christ and ultimately renounces their lives to spreading the word of Christ and Christianity.
The story relates to the development of dichotomy superimposed on individuals. The personal, psychological gateways of the protagonists we approach the “shadow” of Carl Jung (1969), a psychological complex that is present in all human beings. It functions as an inner opponent with whom we struggle throughout our lives. Owing to the duality that is developed in individuals, they start perceiving the world as either good or bad. The shadow has an emotional charge and presents a significant moral opposition to the ego-personality. When these judgments are superimposed on religious, racial, cultural, or national differences, the results is racism, and the prejudices that separate and antagonize people deepening the schisms between “us” versus “them”. These prejudices failed to afflict the ten Boom sisters, as they acted indifferent as the people of their society acted during that age. They tried to help the Jews even when they knew that doing so would bring suffering to them and make them against the Nazi authorities and not doing so would have kept them immune to the whole system. Therefore, they willingly went against the norms of human societal constructs as depicted by Jung, and only to follow the god’s way. In the case of the ten Boom sisters, their shadow’s role was in the victimization of their complex mental and emotional, and social mechanisms by which a person or people claim righteousness and purity, and attribute hostility and evil to the enemy (Keen 1986).
The story of devout Christians
The Hiding Place describes the story of devout Christians who role in resistance in Holland. In this book, she describes her experiences in the German concentration camp. As the Germans took over free Holland and hatred grew, the ten Boom family was motivated by love to become involved in saving Jews. They did whatever they could do to provide food and shelter to those who were fleeing Hitler’s forces. The ten Boons eventually paid a price for their altruism and were taken prisoners and were thrown into the inhumane conditions of the concentration camp. But they confronted the daily brutality of the German soldiers and the intense sufferings of those around them, Corrie and Betsie came to the realization that if they were to be true to their Christian faith they must forgive their Nazis tormentors, seeing them as their brothers and the brothers and the brothers of those who are suffering. This was extremely difficult for them to do, yet their story describes their struggles to demonstrate what the love of God truly meant. Corrie and Bestie felt that life in Ravensbruck was a faith-building experience enabling them to share God’s strength and forgiveness with the other prisoners.
As they see the world with a new vision, problems become learning opportunities, which in turn become our lessons of forgiveness. Through the higher nature, the human expressions of anger are transformed as cries for help.
Circumstances create disregard for our spiritual self. Suffering is the effect of the beliefs in the ego or false self, which is its cause. Thus, whenever humans choose to identify the cause of their suffering as external to themselves, they are falling into the ego’s trap of denying the true cause of their problems, the ego itself, by hiding it behind the projected causes of Betsie ten Boomthe world.
Conclusion
Corrie’s father and Betsie died in the darkness of the concentration camp. Bestie’s last words before she died were the words that compelled Corrie to talk about forgiveness and to share what she learned in the darkness of her experience. Corrie survived, and despite the horrific conditions she endured, she went on to teach the messages which she and Betsie thought in prison.
Works Cited
Cunningham, B. (1985). The will to forgive: A pastoral theological view of forgiving. The Journal of Pastoral Care 39 , 141-149.
Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychotherapists Or The Clergy (from Collected Works Vol 11). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kahrhoff, R. E. (1988). Forgiveness: Formula for Peace of Mind. Capital Planning Corporation.
Worthington, E. L., & Worthington Jr., E. L. (1999). Dimensions of Forgiveness: Psychological Research & Theological Perspectives. Templeton Foundation Press.