Violence, Fear, Perception and Agency
Deepali Bhattacharya
In conversation with TD, Clinical Psychologist · An eleven-part reflection, with notes and references
PART IX
Agency: The Antidote to Fear
“Fear tells us what we cannot control. Agency reminds us what we still can.”
After several conversations on fear, I found myself asking TD a question that many of us quietly ask ourselves after every disturbing news report.
“What can one ordinary person possibly do?”
It is an honest question.
We cannot eliminate violence.
We cannot predict every danger.
We cannot control the choices other people make.
So where does that leave us?
TD’s answer shifted the conversation in an important way.
“Psychology uses a simple but powerful word—agency.” 19
Agency is our ability to recognise that even when circumstances are beyond our control, our response is not.
Fear narrows our world.
Agency begins to expand it again.
It is the difference between saying,
“The world has become unsafe.”
And asking,
“What can I do to become safer?”
The difference may appear small.
Psychologically, it is enormous.
Agency restores something that violence often steals.
Choice.
I have seen this repeatedly while working with women rebuilding their lives after violence.
The turning point rarely arrives through one dramatic event.
It begins quietly.
A woman decides to attend a support group.
Another applies for a job.
Someone learns self-defence.
Someone else files a complaint after years of silence.
Each decision appears ordinary.
Yet together they represent something extraordinary.
They mark the return of agency.
The same principle applies beyond individual lives.
Communities become stronger when people know one another.
When neighbours exchange phone numbers.
When commuters intervene instead of merely recording.
When schools teach children not only mathematics and science but also empathy, emotional regulation and responsible citizenship.
Preparedness is not paranoia.
It is confidence.
The purpose of preparedness is not to convince ourselves that danger is everywhere.
It is to reassure ourselves that if danger appears, we are not entirely helpless.
Perhaps that is why agency is so deeply connected with hope.
Hope is not wishful thinking.
Hope is believing that our actions still matter. 20
A QUESTION THAT STAYED WITH ME…
If agency helps us respond after violence, what helps prevent violence from taking root in the first place?
Perhaps the answer lies much closer to home than we imagine.
Notes:
19. Bandura (1997, 2006) places agency and self-efficacy at the centre of psychological functioning: the belief that one’s actions can influence outcomes is among the strongest protections against helplessness.
20. This is close to Snyder’s (2002) hope theory, in which hope is not optimism but the combination of goals, pathways and the sense of one’s own capacity to act.
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