The individual and the military police institution: reflections on militarization, suffering, and trauma.

Abstract

The Military Police, as it is known today, was created during the dictatorship that ravaged Brazil. This model survived the country's redemocratization and constitutes an authoritarian remnant, demonstrating that the dictatorship still permeates our reality. The militarization of the police is solidifying. In order to become military police officers, people from the most diverse strata of our society, upon entering the institution, are subjected to humiliating and exhausting activities. This results in psychological trauma, often unresolved—the denial of pain is a predominant element in this process. These individuals are subjected to a process of self-mortification, aiming to create a new being, endowed with special characteristics, insensitive to pain and suffering, capable of facing all the adversities inherent in the profession. Such training, aimed at establishing the identity of the military police officer as an unbeatable warrior, is based on veritable rites of passage, presenting humiliation and submission to acts of violence as important elements in the process of forming the new police officer. Through accounts from military police officers who were subjected to these practices, this article reveals stories of traumatic experiences and provides relevant insights for reflecting, based on social psychology, on a reality in which suffering, although not acknowledged, is present, harming the health of these professionals and, why not, our democracy.