Bullying: analyzing school bullying through mimetic theory.

A different look at the problem of bullying at school.

Bullying has always existed, even before it was called as such, however, research on the subject has increased in recent decades due to the need derived from the transitions through which the social and educational environment has gone through.

Bullying and the mimetic theory

It is evident that it is no longer enough to reflect on the observations and results of such research, it is now necessary to delve into the psychological theories of bullying and the mimetic theory. psychological theories that support them and that frame a better understanding of the reality, today so complex, orienting towards pertinent actions that give rise to a reformulation of the social paradigms.

Definition of bullying

To better analyze this phenomenon, it is necessary to define it well.

Human beings are aggressive by nature and often violent by social learning. social learningalthough its behavioral expression varies according to cultures and times, to the point of constituting a violent relational climate, manifest and/or masked, which has become a very well understood social phenomenon (Gómez: 2006).

Now then, What do we understand by school harassment or bullying? The Anglo-Saxon denomination bullying is commonly used to refer to the phenomenon of "bullying". Thus, school bullying is the condition of mistreatment between peers characterized by the harassment and/or intimidation of the bully against the victimwithin the school environment. Therefore, a student is victimized when he/she is exposed repeatedly and for an indefinite period of time to negative acts carried out by one or more students.

A negative action occurs when a subject, intentionally, causes damage or injury, transgresses morally, psychologically or physically to another individual. Negative actions can be committed verbally, for example with threats and mockery, with deceit or even physically, through contact actions such as pushing, hitting, kicking, pinching, spitting. There is also violence that is neither physical nor verbalThere is also non-physical and non-verbal violence, such as laughter, grimaces, obscene gestures, libidinous harassment as well as the exclusion or refusal to comply with the other person's correct and legitimate wishes.

The effects of bullying extend far beyond the specific moments when the aggressions occur, as victims are often anxious about the prospect of returning to school and terrified of the possibility of running into the aggressor again.

It is considered that they are immersed in these problems and that to a greater or lesser extent are victims of them, both the students who are unjustifiably aggressive with others, as well as those who are direct victims of such aggressions. Likewise, students who are not immediately involved, but are indirectly involved because they are observers and passive subjects of violence are also victims of violence, since they are forced to coexist in social situations where the problem is latent.

Why does bullying happen?

The essential factor in bullying is the immanent human desire to dominate, to subdue others, rejoicing in their misfortune even if it is self-inflicted.

As the UNESCO points out, the likelihood that school will be perceived by the student as an emotionally positive experience will depend on the environment that students and teachers manage to create. The emotional climate The emotional climate of the school is given by the presence or absence of violence and other disturbances in the various environments. Currently, among the various phenomena of violence that can occur in the school environment, it has been decided to focus attention primarily on those whose actors and victims are the students themselves, who are repeat offenders and who fracture the symmetry that should exist in peer relationships, promoting or favoring victimization processes in those who are subject to interpersonal violence.

A central aspect of the phenomenon of bullying is the existence of a imbalance of forces. It is a constant present in all those contexts of interpersonal relationships in which people of equal social status, who are forced by circumstances to share scenarios, jobs or simple activities, are together, in a more or less compulsory but relatively permanent way; students attending educational institutions are in these conditions, so they can, and in fact do, get involved in victimization problems.

Mimicry: entering the vicious circle of bullying

"We must recognize to violence a mimetic character, of such intensity that violence cannot die by itself once it has been installed in the community. To escape this circle, it would be necessary to eliminate the terrible backwardness of violence that mortgages the future; it would be necessary to deprive men of all the models of violence that never cease to multiply and engender new imitations." -Irard (1983, 90).

In light of the above, school violence, from a social point of view, is established as a matter of public health and a significant element that entails a psychosocial risk due to multiple derivations in the psychological, Biological and social aspects.

The phenomenon of school violence is nothing more than the reverberation of the aggressive subversion that emanates from the family nuclei and society in general. The gauging of the school violence is columbra by a deterioration of the horizontal relations between pairs as well as vertically, between teachers, parents and students, being the most notorious and worrisome, from my perspective, the mistreatment of students towards teachers and institutionsThis is largely due to the consideration that teachers and schools give to students, to the social influence and mainly to home training.