Ask Dr. Robertson 11 — Smells Like Teen Spirit: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Youth Scorned
Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, which is a lot, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.
Here we talk about the youth and attraction to Satanism, Christmas, pagans, Christianity, the Devil, gossip, and more.
*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You have commented on the ways in which gossip can even move to the point of Satanic cults and the like. You have remarked on Satanic beliefs among youth and the reasons for the attraction of it.
Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: I wrote the first column a couple of years after a child was murdered in La Ronge, Saskatchewan by two older children, age 14 and 8. The murderers believed that if they drank the rendered fat of a virgin they would gain the power to fly. The victim had been dead for a couple of days before his family realized he was missing and reported his disappearance to the police. Nonetheless, the story was circulated that the police would have acted more quickly if the victim were “white.” Then the story was circulated that a Satanic cult was operating in the community and the perpetrators had been “possessed.” Fingers were pointed at adult individuals who were seen to be potential cultists.
Several years later, I was asked to do workshops on Satanic cults in two communities of the Peter Ballantyne Cree to the east of La Ronge. Some youth had murdered several cats and smeared the blood in a local church. Soon after, Satanic symbols were found scrawled on walls in a second community. The RCMP, at the time, had a special unit to deal with cults and that unit was brought in. The Department of Indian Affair funded cult experts to come in. I had a chance to talk to some of the youth involved. In a nutshell, they were angry with their parents and the adults in their communities and this was seen as a way of giving expression to their anger. But to this day, you will find adults believing that some mysterious cult had entered their community and possessed the minds of their youth.
I would like to update an account I gave in the second article linked to your question, Scott. The account given, that Satanism is a mutated form of early paganism involving pagan survivors of Christian persecution, was an accepted narrative within anthropology. But I now believe that the vast majority of women and men who were burnt at the stake during the 16th and 17th century European witch-hunts were, in fact, Christians who had no connection to either pagan or Satanic beliefs. A kind of malignant gossip mutated and spread inciting fear and the need for drastic action engulfing, in some cases, whole communities. You can read my recent work on mind viruses here: Viruses.
The “Scott Boyes” mentioned in the first article was the editor of The Northerner that originally published this series. He had final say on whether my teasing him about hypothetical gossip would be seen by the readers.
Jacobsen: Your writing on Christmas and its history is of interest here too. Is there a common system of belief around oppositions? In that, those leaving Christianity may be more attracted to inverted belief systems, where negative valence beliefs become positive in the newer worldview, e.g., the interest in the archetype of evil in Christianity in the Devil seen as representative of the highest good. Is this particularly the case among the young?
Robertson: That certainly was the case with respect the Peter Ballantyne youth. Their parents were all Christian as were the authorities against which they rebelled. Although there is no evidence that the Church of Satan was involved in their activities, having looked at their website, I believe that church represents an inversion of Christianity as well. To be clear, if Christians are seen to do evil, as they did with the Indian Residential Schools for example, then that which the Christians fear must be good. Of course, the logic does not necessarily follow.
There is no evidence that the boys who murdered and ate the flesh of the young virgin were operating from any inverted belief system. The Christianity of their parents simply made magical or supernatural thinking acceptable, so their actions must be seen within the same paradigm that allowed for the burning of the witches. Immoral superstitious actions done out of fear or opportunism have the same result to the victim. The antidote for such viral thinking is a healthy dose of rational and scientific thought. I think that critical thinking should be taught at all levels in our educational systems and that no topics should be exempted from rational inquiry.
By the way, in my seven years of writing for The Northerner, there were only two articles they refused to print. One of them was this article on the history of Christmas. I was told it would offend some Christians. The other was an article critical of Toshiba.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.
For previous sessions, please see: Ask Dr. Robertson 1 — Counselling and Psychology, Ask Dr. Robertson 2 — Psychotherapy, Ask Dr. Robertson 3 — Social and Psychological Sciences Gone Wrong, Ask Dr. Robertson 4 — Just You and Me, One-on-One Counselling, Ask Dr. Robertson 5 — Self-Actualization, Boys, and Young Males: Solution:Problem::Hammer:Nail, Ask Dr. Robertson 6 — It’s All About Me, Me, Meme, and the Self: From First Nations to Second Nations, Building Third Culture Counselling, Ask Dr. Robertson (and Teela) 7 — Elate, Hawkeye on Roberts: A Happy Counselling Psychology Family Affair, Ask Dr. Robertson 8 — A Social Work Betrayal of Male,Ask Dr. Robertson 9 — The Age of Psychology, Low Self-Esteem, Crazy Making, Schizophrenia, Racism, and Religious Fundamentalism, and Ask Dr. Robertson 10 — Real Life Effects of Fantasy Categories.
Image Credit: Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen founded In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He authored/co-authored some e-books, free or low-cost. If you want to contact Scott: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com.
