up resentment. Frustratedpeople, despite their dissatisfaction, are capable of keeping theirbehavior sufficiently rational and organized so as to minimize the harm causedby untoward situations; traumatized people, on the otherhand, become paralyzed in the face of disturbing stimuli, so much so that theyare not only incapable of minimizing such harm, but, on the contrary, they areable to push their behavior to unthinkable destructive extremes. Unpleasant experiences, bad as they may be,can be internally processed and, if they have proper access to verbalexpression, stabilize at a level which produces rational adjustments, not openinsanity; however, if such access is denied, any experience, no matter howmild, goes through a process of accumulation, rising to the level of trauma,with all of its unwelcome results. AlthoughEric and Dylan had reasons to feel resentful at their school as I mentioned,they were sometimes called losers it is quite apparent, given the degree ofdisturbance and irrational behavior they displayed, that such resentment didnot settle at the level of frustration, but produced indisputable trauma. Forthis to have happened they must havebeen raised in a kind of environment that did not allow them to verbally expresstheir emotions. Unfortunately,this kind of environment, as far as failure is concerned, is a deep-seatedcharacteristic of the American cultural environment Blocking of verbal expressionEven if there are Kochs bacilli the specific cause oftuberculosis present in my body, this does not necessarily mean I will sufferfrom that illness, but it is impossible for me to have tuberculosis without Kochsbacilli being in my body. A laypersonmay well say that someone caught TB because he was cold and hungry while inprison. A competent professional would not say this, he would rather say thatcold and hunger were mere accessoryfactors, lowering the persons immunity and enabling the bacilli toact. Without these bacilli, the cold or hunger could cause someone to die ofcold, hunger, pneumonia, influenza, but notof tuberculosis. A lay personmight also say that Eric and Dylans resentment led them to murder thirteenpeople. I wouldnt say this. As someonewho has been practicing psychotherapy for almost half a century, I would saythat, for an effect of this magnitude to have taken place, besides theresentment, a massive exclusion of their resentment from verbal expression ought also to be present. Besides feeling resentment, these boys must have also felt profoundlyrejected when they tried to talk about it and, therefore, they becamenot just frustrated, they became traumatized, which led to their utterlyirrational behavior. Wanting to get rich is quitedifferent from having a compulsion to do so. Compulsion implies not only anatural attraction to wealth, but a phobiaof being poor. Similarly, a compulsion to be successful does not merely imply anatural attraction to success, but a phobiaof failure. And a generalized phobiaof failure rather than an understandable preference for success overfailure is a typical feature of USculture that consequently coerces not merely stimulates! itsmembers to be successful.[5] Given the widespread belief that beingunhappy is the greatest of allfailures, this process leads to the generalizedobligation to be happy at all times. This in turn produces extensiveblockage among Americans orchestrated by what I call Pretending Psychology, the overwhelmingly dominant means