Evening star., 1962-07-15

thoughts, their society, their
life? Here is an insight into
the soul Of America in crisis.
hundreds of thousands. The vast
majority of Americans are anx-
ious but, judging by all the signs,
do not live in nightmare, do not
consciously carry the emotional
burden of world crisis into their
daily lives, have not knowingly
changed their lives because of it.
There is little sign of "nuclear
neurosis" and few psychiatrists
find patients who can legitimately
blame their disturbances on the
possibility of nuclear extinction.
Despite their anxiety, the great
mass of Americans cling to "the
instinct for normal living" in the
phrase of Arthur Schlesinger, jr.,
historian and White House as
sistant. While great changes oc-
cur in the world and smaller.
subtle changes occur in our Gov
ernment. economy and intellectual
life, the average American, it
seems, finds little noticeable
change in his life pattern.
Worried? Yes, but
He is concerned, but in a broad
generalized way. He does not per-
sonalize it often or for long. He
has thought of himself and his
family being vaporized into moth
ingness but he does not dwell on
it. Still. it is there, always there.
When the public opinion pollers
ask whether they are worried
about the cold war and the posi-
bility of world explosion, most
Americans say, yes. they are wor-
ried. But they do nothing about it.
In the fall of 1861, when the
Berlin crisis reached its height,
when Dag Hammarskjold had
been killed and it looked like the
United Nations might come apart,
polls showed more Americans wor-
ried about war than any time
since Korea.
The question of fallout shelters
received more attention in the
press and on the air than any
time before or since. But even
against this background, a poll
taken by the Survey Research
Center at the University of Mich
igan indicated at least "a per cent
of Americans had no shelters and
had no plans for them.
The anxiety of most Americans
about world crisis appears to re-
semble a large pool of oil sub
merged not too far below the sur
face. 1t could ignite into active
fear, even panic, but so far hasn't.
With time. with increased exposure
to a simmering bomb that does
not explode, it could be sub
merged deeper. But an anx-
iety submerged, psychiatrists tell
us, is no less an anxiety. It could,
in fact, ultimately prove more
profound than anxiety faced
frankly on the surface.
Why aren't people generally
more actively, more consciously
concerned by the ever-present
threat of atomic ArmageddonP
Oppenheimer's Theory
People tend to ignore things
which they cannot alter or avert,
which they cannot imagine, for
which they cannot prepare, be-
yond which they cannot see," says
j. Robert Oppenheimer, the phys
icist and chief obstetrician at the
birth of the atom bomb. DR.. OPP
penheimer happens also to believe
that in the next great war none
of us can count on having enough
living to bury our dead"
Most Americans are not geared
to live with ambiguity" says DR..
Leonard Duhl, pSychiatrist at
the National Institute of Mental
Health. Most people, he says, en-
ploy protective mechanisms for
blotting out Of their minds the
menace of world crisis which is
diffuSe, complex and without ap-
parent beginning or end.
The reaction to ambiguity
peace which is not peace and war
which is not war - reminds DR..
Duhl of study made of the fam
lilies of the victims of the Cocoa
nut Grove fire in Boston in 1912.
Where the fire took a life i'm
mediately the remaining family
developed "few symptoms" later.
Where there was a lingering
death, where the victim was nei-
ther safely alive nor definitely
dying, the family frequently de-
veloped symptoms - ulcers, heart
disease and other ailments often
linked with emotion.
DR.. Duhl's implication seems to
be that long exposure to doubt
about life or death on this planet
may ultimately produce mass
symptoms.
Meanwhile, the human mind has
many ingenious devices for tenn
porary self-insulation. 1t can,
through wishful thinking or help
lessness, rationalize real danger
away. 1t can, with automatic pre-
ciSion, stop thinking about the
unthinkable. It can close closet
doors on the horrible and, having
locked the door, may even con-
vince itself there never was really
anything on the other side to
worry about.
We've Suffered Less
DR.. Gordon Airport, Harvard So
cial psychologist, calls the process
an lego defensive apathy-a de-
fensiveness against facing the
worst" He is reminded of a study