The impact of dictatorship or authoritative regimes on the mental health and overall psychology of individuals extremely depends on the history of the country and their people. I argue that countries that have a history of good leadership and good democracy, suffer more mentally if that very country falls under a dictatorship or authoritative regime, in contrast to countries with no history of good leadership or democracy, which have been under dictatorship for at least two generations.
Often in authoritative regimes, rulers twist everything to their demands and needs. How they want the country to run, in their favour. Very often, in doing so, they also twist the minds of individuals, with propaganda, portraying themselves as gods, or supreme leaders, or in extreme cases, fear plays a bigger role in how people behave in a country, because of the regime they’re under.
Similarly, with individuals living in closed dictatorship regimes, that have been running for at least two generations, how do the individuals feel, how is their mental health, and how do they react mentally, when they come in contact with a different country, a freer country compared to theirs?
In this analysis report, I have used two articles, one of which was on Egypt, its dictatorship, its unstable government and the psychology of individuals living in such a state. This is a report on refugees who have escaped from North Korea, a closed dictatorship country with high control and censorship over their citizens, seeking refuge in South Korea, and China.
Elsayed, Yasser Abdel Razek wrote an article on ‘Gods never fall sick or die
dictatorship and mental health in Egypt’ which emphasised and brought out a perspective on the mental health of individuals living in Egypt, a country that has seen other forms of government and regimes around them, and they have been under an unstable government for a long time.
As per Elsayed, Yasser Abdel Razek, corruption, loot, unemployment, suppression of freedom of speech and various other means of suppression through which, citizens get frustrated. Which leads to them hoping to get rid of their leaders. When that doesn’t happen, they hope for them to pass on naturally, and die a natural death. But after years of going through the same torment, and regime, individuals start to view them as inevitable supreme leaders, losing hope for a better tomorrow.
In such countries, the socioeconomic problem is also a big factor that affects everyone’s mental health, not just in such countries, but generally too. But specifically in such countries, hopelessness, vulnerability to disasters, vulnerability in general, insecurity, and risk of torture or hurt increase tremendously.
Fustration rises to a level where citizens believe their leader can do anything. They see them as supreme leaders, as mentioned before.
Another study, done by Woo-Teak Jeon, MD, corresponding author Shi-Eun Yu, MA, Young-A Cho, PhD, and Jin-Sup Eom, MA on Refuges who escaped from North Korea, refuging in South Korea and analysed their mental health. They were hoping from an extreme dictatorship country to breathe the air of the other side. The paper is titled ‘Traumatic Experiences and Mental Health of North Korean Refugees in South Korea’. Which studied the trauma and experiences of individuals who escaped. In such regimes, escaping is close to impossible, hence it is quite given that casualties and difficulties will be encountered. The research gave an idea of how that affected individuals, and how the regime affected them. Individuals were also given personality assessments, which revealed that they (refuged North Koreans) scored higher than the South Koreans. In gender comparison, men showed more alcohol problems and non-support to others.
A study was conducted before this paper in the 2000s called the Hong’s Report. Which reported and analyzed individuals from North Korea, who escaped and entered China. This has been compared with this paper, and a few striking points have been made in them. Firstly, between 2006 and 2007, there was a weakening in social control by the government, shown by the progress in their life, without any big change.
Secondly, it showed that over time, the trauma of escaping and even before, living in a dictator country, had reduced. But later, another study by Yu, in 2006, showed that the trauma levels have increased again. Perhaps we could see the slipping of the tight hold that the dictator had.
Furthermore, through these studies, it is indicated that looking for mental health issues in North Koreans was wrong because they had nothing wrong with them. What’s interesting is that, after their escape, that’s when they developed mania and Schizophonia, after coming in contact with the outside world. Perhaps because of the huge cultural shock and the vast difference between North Korea to any other country.
The research also mentioned, that men and women also portrayed very different behaviours, men being the more aggressive alcoholics who were provided no social support in North Korea, compared to women, who showed more depressive tendencies.
Interestingly, the North Korean refugees also were given the warmth test. This test evaluates how warm, loving and caring an individual is, to how cold or dismissive they are. The scale gives a spectrum of interpersonal relationships. As it turns out, females in North, and South Korea, have more or less the same level of warmth that they show, compared to men, refugees in North Korea, portray more warmth than South Korean men. This shows, that even with less social support to men, they are still warm in their interpersonal relations, hospitable, as well as more readily acceptable to others.
The North Korean refugees, find it hard to adjust to the much freer society that South Korea is. With trauma and living life under major control, it will take support and understanding from South Korea, to integrate them into their society.
And so is the case with major dictatorship countries, where trauma and bad experiences leave a mark on individuals, who don’t have mental illness, but get one when they seek refugee in other countries, other freer countries.
References
Elsayed, Yasser Abdel Razek. Gods never fall sick or die: dictatorship and mental health in Egypt. Middle East Current Psychiatry 18(3):p 127-131, July 2011. | DOI: 10.1097/01.XME.0000398725.32905.ae
Jeon, W. T., Yu, S. E., Cho, Y. A., & Eom, J. S. (2008). Traumatic experiences and mental health of North Korean refugees in South Korea. Psychiatry investigation, 5(4), 213–220. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2008.5.4.213
