Quiet here of late. The truth is I've been so depressed about all things American, and a few other things as well, that I didn't want to spew that mooooood all over this space. But last night I was flipping through a magazine and came upon something that cheered me considerably:
Since 9/11, America has behaved like a battered spouse, says psychologist Martha Stout, Ph.D., in her powerful new book The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires our Brains and Reshapes our Behavior - And How We Can Reclaim our Courage (Sarah Crichton Books). We've been collectively traumatized and subsequently dominated by fear, she says, only to become demoralized, paralyzed, and separated from the values and passions that once guided us as a nation. Drawing from her work with trauma patients and her teachings at Harvard Medical School, Stout makes the case for applying the psychological model of trauma on the brain, body, and behavior to the nation as a whole. Seen in this light, the instigating events of 9/11 are just part of the problem. The rest comes from people with political purposes who are "motivated to keep your subliminal fear and your sense of dread at a simmering point." Fortunately, a nation, like an abused spouse, can break free and heal, Stout says. She details a plan to assess anxiety, identify the myths and realities of the threat, protect ourselves against fearmongers, and regain hope. "Our continued fear has had large scale social and political implications," she writes. "And healing from it is more than an individual health objective - it is a national mission. Striving to be calmer, more aware, and more rational is, arguably, a patriotic act." This is one of the year's most illuminating books.
"Cheered by this?" you say. Yes. Because we're well past time to be talking about what's really broken. And how it has been made worse by small, dangerously unwise, so-called leaders.
I sure hope the reviewer is right about illumination, because we're definitely overdue for light. Time to recognize and talk - and I mean serious talk - about the core material at the heart of what really ails us. And specific steps we can take to self-correct.
Show me a viable presidential candidate who gets this and pledges commitment to concrete healing steps as a national mission, and I'm on board.
In the meantime, we should all be pressing media outlets to start a whole new order of conversation about what we "need" to do.