the survivors

Gabriel Raam
March 17, 2014
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Part I: The exceptions in situations of crisis and danger

Survival is a human phenomenon. But it turns out that only 10% of the population belong to this minority.

The one who researched the phenomenon and wrote a lot about it is Dr. Al Seibert, a psychologist. He wrote a book in the original language called: The personality of the survivor

The book was translated into Hebrew and is called: “Personality and Survival”, (as mentioned) by Al Sibert and was published by Am Oved in 1999

Sibert himself is an interesting person. At the age of college he was diagnosed as schizophrenic, he ran away from the institution to college where he completed his studies in psychology and later earned a doctorate in the field.

When he was a paratrooper in Korea in 1953 he was assigned to the Airborne Brigade no. 503 He remembered meeting survivors from parachute unit 11, this is a unit that was in the most difficult battles, so difficult that only one soldier out of ten survived. Quite a few people would attribute it to luck, chance or anything else circumstantial. He, as a beginning psychologist was actually interested in the structure of their personality. He is captivated by qualities common to all.

In his studies for a master’s degree in psychology, he discovered that “psychologists and psychiatrists do not know much about people who stand up well under pressure.” And that led him to an independent research project to study the Surdians. To this end, he read autobiographies and interviewed hundreds of people – “death march survivors and Holocaust survivors, prisoners of war and veterans of the battles in Vietnam, people who survived diseases such as: cancer, polio, head injuries and other physical injuries. Women and men who survived rape, abuse, alcoholism, co-dependent relationships and addictions. The parents of murdered children, people who survived after bankruptcy, layoffs and other major events that disrupt life.”

And first of all how he defines them: according to him, “They are people endowed with an amazing ability to withstand crises and external difficulties. They show resilience and ability to withstand difficult situations. After the crisis, they regain (relatively easily) their emotional equilibrium, and not only that, but after the crisis they even become stronger because they derive strength from the difficulties and often turn a crisis into an opportunity”

Don’t ask yourself: is survival an innate or acquired character. He answered this unequivocally: “People are born with a natural talent for survival. Others have to consciously work hard at it. He adds an enigmatic touch to his words: the characteristics characteristic of survivors can be learned – but they cannot be taught…

Those who are used to acting, thinking and feeling according to instructions, do not face life’s unexpected challenges as successfully as those who have developed their own abilities. (Each of the successful survivors developed a unique way of coping)”.

“In the school of life, the responsibility lies with the student and not with the teacher.”

He discovered some qualities in them; First, he noticed that they rested in what he called: “relaxed awareness”, which is a kind of quiet consciousness, which even seems half drowsy. (This situation allows them to dwell in the ‘eye of the quiet storm’ and from there quietly examine all 360 degrees). This relaxed consciousness is a sign of peace in their emotional world. The more turbulent the emotions because of the crisis, the more the broad consciousness shrinks and dims). And the relaxed consciousness can absorb much more (by relaxed consciousness he actually means alpha waves).

But to his surprise he discovered that along with this quality (of the relaxed or quiet consciousness) they have a quality that is opposite to this ‘looseness’. And the reference to a kind of radar that each of them had, which constantly scanned the environment in search of threats.

The very fact that these two opposites coexisted in the same person led him to believe that one of the outstanding characteristics of the survivors is complexity. Their personality in general, consists of a series of opposite poles, (not only the contradiction between loose awareness and constant radar), he calls this by the name: “bilateral traits”, for example:

Seriousness and humor.

hardness and delicacy.

Reason and intuition.

Diligence and laziness.

Modesty and shyness together with initiative.

introverted and communicative.

Many survivors are both optimistic and pessimistic,

involved and disconnected.

Theoretically, almost every psychologist will come to the conclusion that so many and polarized contrasts in one person’s personality will bring him to paralysis. But not with the survivors.

So conflicting personality lines not only do not paralyze them but also allow them to survive in situations where others come out as victims.

Well, the fact that they have such contrasting and paradoxical features allows them a very wide range of response possibilities to choose from.

In other words, it allows them flexibility, or adaptability.

Bipolar personality traits increase the chances of survival. Because in this way the magician is not fixed only on one frequency of behavior, he can sometimes behave like this and when the situation changes to behave exactly the opposite. Someone who has bipolar personality traits can adapt better than someone who is “only this way or only that”.

The survivors can act in one way and in another situation in a completely opposite way. But for non-survivors when they cannot act contrary to their normal pattern of behavior, they feel helpless, and completely at the mercy of external forces.

Pairs of polarized, or paradoxical, personality lines are essential to a survivalist lifestyle because they allow one to choose from an arsenal of different traits.

And not only that, but the longer a person has a list of paradoxical traits or bipolar characteristics, it means that this person is more complex. And such people deal more successfully with difficult situations. And what is more interesting is that these bipolars not only survive difficult situations, they become stronger as a result.

All this and other characteristics led Seibert to call their personality enigmatic. They fail to fit into any normal psychological category.

Which leads to the next point: socially, the survivors are definitely nonconformists, or outsiders, (they don’t need to belong to a group). For people who know how to survive – there is no problem with the fact that they see and think differently from other people.

They do feel abnormal, but this very fact gives them strength, even if it means that other people interpret this as emotional instability.

Another thing, it turned out to the researchers