Here is another post that might be of interest, especially to people like the military chaplain H.R. director of the Vienna mission. At least, it should be an authoritative source in their eyes.
Major Wallen, Vincent (1967). Military Medicine, 132(9), 722-725.
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This is from the "Reactions." of the article.
"Individuals differ greatly to the degree in which they are affected by culture shock. There are those who cannot live in a foreign country. These are the individuals who become quickly and profoundly traumatized in the new environment. A quick return to the previous environment is the only solution." (p. 723)
I would like to bring it to the attention of Mr. chaplain H.R. Director that I have lived in several countries and I have never once had to return home for relief of culture shock. That includes in Vienna... despite your hasty, unprofessional diagnosis.
And for the rest of you out there who aren't the H.R. director, you should just know that this is exactly what he accused me of which was totally bogus and I've proved it so many times on this blog it's enough to spin your head off.
So what happened was they (the Vienna mission leadership) set up exceedingly stressful situations for me, I responded by stepping back in somewhat distrust, but the thing was that things that were promised me were not carried out and they just wanted total submission. But when they increased my stressors I still tried to quietly go about my work and do what I'm supposed to do.
Maybe it was almost an attitude of "Okay, you want to play hardball? I'll show you! I can take whatever you have to give me."
Well, that's not what it was all about, I don't think. I doubt very much whether they wanted to test my endurance or my ability to outsmart them or whatever. I really think that they were setting up these stupid stressors so that I'd come in whining like a little baby about how hard it is and how I'm doing my best and I just can't do it and wah wah wah. Or something like that. Then they would calm me and tell me I'm doing great and things would start to calm down and they'd start to hook me in to their inner lair of how they see the worl through their security lens.
But at the time I was thinking along the hardball line as stated above. I was ticked that they'd be playing this kind of mind game with me and I didn't like it at all because I don't like mind games at all. I'm not a mind games kind of person.
And the other very real possible / probable issue was my dad's position as program planner in Boeing's star wars and also, as I learned much later, some kind of formal intelligence role within that position as well, and there's a title on his business card that proves it even, and I have his last security clearance information (dad helped me get it).
So I'm just building a case that this H.R. director, who acted all fatherly and concerned for me, and presented me with a research article regarding stages of culture shock people go through, as sort of "proof" that that was my problem, used that as prefix before explaining that they wanted to send me back to the States for counseling.
What had been happening was I had been having a lot of stress - nothing to do with Austria at all, because I was doing just fine in Austria, including attending an Austrian church and signing up for an evening class at the adult evening school and things like that - hardly signs of culture shock, if you ask me. But my stress was only from things happening at the mission, and I was intentionally being presented with extra stresses.
Since then I've lived in Siberia and in S. Korea. Both of these are much more different from the U.S. than is Austria. The worst was S. Korea because of the way the men treated me no matter what I did, including dressing ultra- conservative - short of a birka. That was really getting to me and I think the men issue probably was traumatizing me, and I came back to the States because of it, although I had a good job interview lined up. I just didn't think I could live there. The people I knew and was around every day were fine and that was okay, but out on the streets or in the subway it was just awful and I just had too much of it. I was molested twice on the train and then there were lesser problems, and like I said, I really dressed conservatively. I always had sleaves to my elbows, and that kind of thing. So that traumatized me. But I know that on the trains there was such a trouble with this for Korean women (blond hair or not) that they made a special rush hour train that was just for women). I guess you had to get used to it, but you shouldn't have to. The first time I was molested I was on the way to my volunteer work at the ecological organization and I told the two other ladies at the English speaking department and I was just shocked. That was really the kind of thing you didn't talk about, but the department head was an American Sister of Mercy and the other women was pretty cosmopolitain (international) and had worked at a Scandinavian embassy (I can't remember country which right off hand).
The next time it happened (or started to happen) I stood right up and I just started yelling at the man and I really gave him a verbal lashing right there. Since that was rather a taboo subject there I'm sure that didn't happen every day there but they hadn't met the likes of me before either. I hope that man and a few other men there thought twice before trying that again and I hope that a few women felt emboldened to stand up for their rights, even if not exactly how I did it. Of course, not everyone would have understood what I was saying, but enough knew English to have an idea.
Acting like that wasn't totally inappropriate for Korea, however, because S. Korea has a very strong protest bent. So I didn't use a means of expressing my displeasure that was totally inappropriate to the culture. In fact, I think a lot of people there would actually approve and applaud my courageous stand.
On the other hand, in Vienna, I would say it was the Vienna mission that traumatized me. They so traumatized me that I was just in shambles when I returned to the States when my term ended in 1989. It's impossible to think other than they did it on purpose the way they shuffled me around from position to position, then at the end they shunned me like a leper, then they kept pressuring me to come closer and closer into their circle, which made me feel like all the more failure and I lost a lot of friends because of them because they made me drop people from my prayer letter list and they pressured me to attend the English church. So before you know it they have me in a position where it feels like I can't do anything without them. Which is pretty much always what they wanted, but they wanted complete trust, which isn't exactly the same as not being able to do anthing without them. They didn't have my complete trust; they really lost about all of my trust, and I guess at the end the feeling was mutual. So I left when my term was up.
But they had done a number on me and I was traumatized as all get out. So in this case they traumatized me on purpose. That's worse than the men in South Korea. I won't say that everthing they did was orchestrated, but there was a significant amount of social engineering type of thing going on. I think they treated me like they thought I became a security threat towards the end, which would explain them shunning me I guess.
One thing I need to add about them sending me back to the US and I've said this before, is that they had earlier sent the wives of two leaders back for counseling too, so I think it was a way for them to instill cooperation for their security; it was a practice they'd used before.
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"Another important point is the attitude of the local populace toward the individual who is experiencing culture shock. If the individual is frustrated and angry towards them, they will sense the hostility and will either avoid him or respond in an equally hostile manner. Anger begets anger and hostility begets hostility." (p. 725)I wasn't angry with the Vienna mission because I think I was in denial for the longest time hoping/wishing that they would offer to discuss things openly and come to some middle ground or figure out a way to work around our differences. That was clearly wishful thinking and I think I was too broken to be angry, but it's possible there was anger in there too, but if so, it was buried inside.
On the other hand, I was angry at the men in S. Korea. I felt like sort of a prisoner to them. Sometimes you'd just be walking along and just the way they look at you could make you feel like they're undressing you or something. So it made me angry and I felt violated and like there was no avoiding it anywhere. I guess if you had a private car it would be a lot easier to avoid it.
In Vienna I was always friendly and sociable and did my work well and had a good attitude. So they never could complain about anything in those regards, because I always did my best. And I had people over and did social things too. So they couldn't fault me on anything like that.
In S. Korea, I wasn't angry with any of the people I was normally with at work, where I lived, where I volunteered, etc. So this was not an issue with them. (Also, I went to several churches while in Seoul, but I couldn't really settle on one.)
