Psychological Effects of Terrorism

Dehumanization obviously has negative effects on a soldier’s mind and psyche, a fact that the military almost always ignores. A neuropsychiatric disorder known as “combat fatigue” often plagues soldiers in the line of an “unprecedented amount of indirect fire” but is almost never recognized. Many saw soldiers with the disorder as lesser, and “the Marine Corps official history failed to mention combat fatigue, even though it constituted 10 percent of the casualties and had a very negative effect on the fighting.” The trend of refusing to acknowledge that human soldiers also had human brains and hearts and feelings became accepted more and more as the war dragged on.

This is the first entry for a general review of the advance of various pscychological warfare techniques throughout history. Not intended to be all inclusive, it touches on some prominent points of divergence setting psychological warfare strategies and tactics apart as a military discipline of its own from the time of Cyrus's Persia to contemporay Asymmetrical Warfare.History of

When a person enters war, the boarder between what is real and what is imagined starts to blur. It becomes obscured by the overload of stimuli experienced in

Sigmund Freud extensively studied the minds of combat soldiers during the World War I (WWI) era and was one of the first to describe symptoms associated with combat stress. Psychoanalysis had its beginnings in trauma theory and has been intimately associated with the concept of psychological trauma ever since. Psychoanalytic theory advanced military psychiatry’s understanding of post-deployment mental health problems beyond the broken brain conceptualization of “shell shock.” In turn, the successful application of psychodynamics in World War II (WWII) military psychiatry inspired a dramatic shift toward psychoanalysis and spurred the growth of departments of psychiatry across America (Kudler, 2007).

“I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged”(Lee). We have learned what to be afraid of, and what not to be afraid of. If we acted today as we did in the past, our world would be in complete chaos and panic.

Rachel Yehuda and Steven Hyman, in their journal, “The Impact of Terrorism on Brain, and Behavior: What We Know and What We Need to Know” (2005), the two analyze the effect terrorism can have on the brain. They supported this by providing factual evidence when they state,"It has now become clear that psychological responses following terrifying events have wide-ranging implications on both mental and physical health." Their purpose is to inform about the mental effects that terrorism as on people in order to prevent any future problems this could cause and to help others struggling with this. Using these facts, they create a more trusted bond between the reader and themselves to insure the reader knows they are a credible source. The article

Psychology of a Soldier (Evaluation of the psychological elements of the soldiers in Red Badge of Courage and An Episode of War) War is inevitable. It has happened over and over in history. Battles are sometimes recognized with honor, sometimes shame. There are even invisible wars that occur within ourselves.

Zizek (2002) applies his concept ‘Passion for real’ to critically examine the consequences of the 9/11 event. He explains ‘Passion for real’ is a desire to perceive things in a more realistic way. For him ‘Real’ is what you achieve when you peel off the subtle layers of outside world/reality. He argues that the concept of ‘Real’ is driven by hollowness and is not presentable. The ‘passion of for real’ is to search and explore for reliability destined to fail the situation, as the ‘real’ is given a symbolic form. He believes that when informed about events like 9/11 by news the only experience of 'reality ' we have is through the videos and photographs that are

As a result, the social environment on Earth has become much less violent. As Wanda (short for Wanderer) says, “No one could compare what had been and what was now and not admit that Earth was better thanks to us” (Meyer, 2010, p. 60). In fact, soul-infected humans began being so kind to one another that the remaining humans knew that something was changing. Keeping with the dystopian genre framework there has been a cataclysmic change on Earth through this alien invasion. Those humans who have not had an alien “inserted” into their brain now have to hide their existence from the souls’ Seekers who are less bothered by the use of violence than the other peace-loving souls. Wanda and other souls see this as a sign that a Seeker is a lesser individual and “that only the least civilized souls, the least evolved, the lesser among us, would be drawn to the path of Seeker” (p. 22). However, on Earth, unlike on other planets where occupation was relatively easy, humans have proven to be resistant to becoming hosts and the occupation has gone awry and has turned into “a fierce and bloody battle” (p. 22). Therefore, the Seekers have had a greater influence on the occupation as they hunt down and capture humans such as

"The world will remain as brutal as our level of desensitization to its brutality." (Unknown) Many humans in this world no longer feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty, violence, or suffering as they are overexposed to such images. In other words, these people have become desensitized and display no empathy towards others. In the event that one is exposed to these types of surroundings on a regular basis they begin to adapt and become unaware of how heinous their actions actually are. Though not everyone partakes in these atrocious acts of violence, they are still in the wrong as they are simply bystanders watching the victims being abused. In essence desensitization causes humans to adapt, become callous to their surroundings, and become apathetic towards the others right to live.

Even if the fear of impending doom was to be set aside, there would still be the fear of being accused as a

Crime is displayed in the media, on television shows, talked about amongst individuals, and seen in many neighborhoods causing many individuals to live fear. Many people begin to live in fear because they believe their likelihood of becoming victimized is high based on what they hear and visualize. In this paper I will be discussing how Fear of Crime is Worse than Crime Itself. I will introduce articles representing people living in fear when there likelihood of becoming a victim of crimes are low. The text book suggest that fear of crime can lead to “withdraws from communities and a breakdown in social relations among people. It can also suppress investment and discourage new business causing neighborhood deterioration and abandonment. Fear of crime causes anxiety and depressions for some individuals (p8).” In my paper I will explore many examples of how fear can lead up to these societal issues.

Moral panics take place when the media outlets take a fairly ordinary event and turn it extraordinary. Cohen states that in a moral panic the media identifies a particular group as a folk devil (1972). Essentially folk devils can be identified as a threat to society's values. This is see when the media presents the group in a negative stereotypical fashion and again exaggerate the scale of the problem. Moral panics have three distinguishing characteristics. In Bonn’s article, Who Benefits From Public Fear, he states that one characteristic of moral panic includes a focused attention, whether real or imagined, of certain individuals or groups that are transformed into what Cohen referred to as “folk devils” by the mass media (2015). Additionally there is a noticeable gap between the concern and object risk poses. Typically this threat is less than generally perceived because of how the media outlets represent the threat. The level of concern over time fluctuates greatly. The usual pattern begins with the introduction of the threat, followed by an increase rise and then peak in public concern, which then therefore, and regularly unexpectedly, dies down. _________________________

Purpose: To inform readers of the effects the recent terrorist attacks have on society today.

against South Vietnam and the U.S. forces situated there. It was not only a psychological