Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 27

SHARP REALITIES

his seminal psychological theory of self-deception (i.e.,
“bad faith”) in Being and Nothingness.1
His discussion goes far in explaining the psychological phenomenon behind prison rapes among
same-sex populations as a matter of social dominance rather than sexual orientation. Such rapes are
supreme acts of disrespect, the stripping of dignity.
One can also see the same dynamic in cases of abusive
hazing incidents in fraternities.
The impulse to objectify others is always the
precursor of psychological violence that also leads
to physical violence. There is a sexual component
in this impulse, and it is therefore worth keeping in
mind that the realities of SHARP are connected to
the culture that we tolerate regarding leadership and
stewardship in general.

Attacking someone’s dignity, showing disrespect for
a subordinate through verbal or physical attacks in the
name of developing soldierly toughness, is an act governed by the same impulse as sexual assault. This disrespect is at the heart of the culture that must change if we
are to defeat sexual assault and harassment.
As long as leaders can degrade others verbally or
physically, and get away with it, as long as we turn our
backs when a superior abuses a subordinate, the conditions are set to take the abuse into the realm of overt sexual dynamics. Leaders who engage in hazing or in abusive
“smoke sessions” are performing sublimated sexual acts
of dominance. The battalion commander or command
sergeant major who lets loose a string of obscenities
meant to degrade a subordinate is performing an act that
is psychologically akin to assaulting that soldier.

Lt. Col. Peter D. Fromm, U.S. Army, retired, was until recently the deputy G-1 of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps
(Forward) at Camp Zama, Japan. He was responsible for supervising the SHARP program for the senior mission
commander.

Note
1. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: a Phenomenological
Essay on Ontology, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Citadel Press,
1956). See part three, chapter three, “Concrete Relations With

MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

Others,” and sub-chapter II, “Second Attitude Toward Others:
Indifference, Desire, Hate, Sadism.”

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