Martha S.'s Comments
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 2:04pm EDT
Thanks again, Jennifer! Until next time, as you say.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 2:02pm EDT
Thanks, Anna. And thanks everyone. Your questions have been extremely interesting. You're an astute group of people. Hope to see you at the Harvard Bookstore at 3 pm on Friday!

I've enjoyed this very much. Good-bye for now.

Martha Stout
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:59pm EDT
Ms. Meacham,
Thanks for asking that. The expression "paranoia switch" has a double meaning. First of all, it refers to the changes in behavior and culture that followed 9/11. And secondly, it refers to the "paranoia switch" that was installed in our very brains on that day.

Traumatic memories are recorded in the brain differently from the way regular memories are stored. Regular memories-- for example, "I visited the Cascade Mountains with my cousin Fred," are integrated and whole, and stored in the "higher" parts of our brain. For this reason, we can use words to describe these memories, talk about them with other people, and add to them later on with more updated information about mountains and cousin Fred. Traumatic memories, in contrast, never get to the higher parts of the brain. They become "trapped" at the level of the limbic system (the"emotional part" of the brain), and consist of little isolated shards of sensation and image that pop up at odd times and cause us to behave anxiously when there is no longer any reason to be anxious (like the combat veteran who falls to the pavement when he hears a car backfire). Worst of all, a paranoia switch is nonconscious and silent; usually we don't know it's there, nor do we understand how vulnerable it makes us to manipulation.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:49pm EDT
Susan,
I understand your dilemma very well. My daughter was nine in 2001. Children-- most especially the younger ones-- learn about all the emotions from their adult caregivers, and anxiety is no different. It's okay, in fact it's good, to talk with your children about the topic of anxiety in general-- what it feels like, why it happens, what a panic attack is, and so forth. Labels help us all. You can certainly say that your panic is something in your mind, and not something that has to do with how much danger you logically think surrounds you and your family. You can tell your kids the truth-- the adults are trying to make the country safer, and where it concerns you and them personally, the probability that you or a family member will be injured by a terrorist is tiny-- smaller than the likelihood that you'd be hit by a piece of space debris. You can tell them that 9/11 made people very sad and frightened, but that we've gotten better since then, and that there will always be ways that they, too, will be able to deal with the anxieties in their own lives. Have faith in them, that they will be able to cope, now and in the future. That's the very best way to teach them to have faith in themselves.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:36pm EDT
Denise,
I look forward to reading your article. I think we can all remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, how we felt, and so forth, that morning. All of that has been, in a manner of speaking, burned into our minds. I was at my computer doing some writing, when the Associated Press put up a headline on the Web (just a headline-- no story) that said, "Plane crashes into World Trade Center." I remember clearly that I thought to myself-- Wow, someday this kind of thing is going to happen and it will be a terrorist attack. Then, of course, came the additional headline, "Second plane crashes into the World Trade Center," and I knew... I guess we all did.

It is important to tell each other our stories. Words and communication are extremely important. They keep us from being automatons run by silent, unconscious fears, and they help us turn off the paranoia switch. Also, they make us less vulnerable to fear-brokering opportunists.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:26pm EDT
Craig,
Thank you so much for your kind words. Yes, I really do believe that what we do about our fear is more important than the specific steps we take to deal with terrorism. And, it should be noted, the idea that we can ever "kill or capture all the terrorists" is completely inaccurate. Terrorism has been with us for many thousands of years; it is not new, and, sadly, it is not ever going to be completely gone, and so we need to find some way to handle our fear, rather than to spend all our energies on a task that is impossible in the first place.

Thanks for asking about other venues. I'll be speaking and signing books at the Harvard Bookstore (not the Coop-- rather, it's the Harvard Bookstore) this Friday, 9/14, at 3 pm. C-SPAN will be covering the event. Would be great to have all of you there!
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:16pm EDT
Zoe,
There's a reasonably good book on the mentality of terrorists called Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind, by Walter Reich. This book comes out of the Woodrow Wilson Center (so keep in mind its political origins).

Just like we're not, terrorists are not all the same. I suspect that some are plain-vanilla sociopaths. But others are ideologues, and some simply desperate. Keep in mind, also, that despite what you hear all the time in the media, the main motivation of terrorism in not hatred and envy. Its main motivation is a desire to communicate something, to have an effect, by planting something in the minds of the survivors, something (fear) that they hope will remain our minds.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:10pm EDT
Thanks, Jennifer. The questions look very interesting.
Sep 10, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 28
Martha S. Sep 11, 2007, 1:09pm EDT
Deb,
First of all, I'm glad you were able to pull yourself away from issues surrounding someone's conscienceless behavior. Staying away is the best thing you can do, for yourself and for everyone.

As for the rest-- You're absolutely right. Terrorism can actually be DEFINED as aggressive, usually violent acts that have, as their most important goal, the invasion of the minds of the survivors. And just after 9/11//01, research discovered a correlation between anxiety and the amount of television a person watched. And we must not overlook the ways we have been retraumatized-- for six years-- by politicians who have chosen to use our fear and paranoia to consolidate their authoritarian power.
Sep 6, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 19
Martha S. Sep 9, 2007, 9:20pm EDT
To all-

I've been reading these intriguing comments about The Paranoia Switch, and I definitely agree that the worst terrorist is the one-- foreign or domestic-- who takes up residence in our minds. At least half of the book concerns the ways fear-mongering "leaders" have kept our fears alive so as to further their own agendas.

There's a section on how to recognize a political scaremonger, and one of the issues that I personally am most interested in, as a psychologist and as a human being, is whether or not nations will ever be able to recognize such people before they gain enormous political power. What do you think?

I'm very much looking forward to hearing from all of you at the live chat on Tuesday.

Martha Stout
 
Martha S.
Massachusetts
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