Growing up in the nuclear age. Psychological development in the face of uncertainty

Abstract

The psychological development of children growing up in the nuclear age is currently the subject of much discussion. A ~~ he spectre of nuclear war is an uneasy mix-T ture of known and unknown. The destruction revealed in bomb-test footage and post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki documentaries provides only a glimpse of the devastating power unleashed by man's ingenuity. These images have become part of the texture of our culture. For nearly forty years, we have been living in the shadow of a nuclear nightmare. This shadow has become darker as nuclear arsenaLs multiply and spread, as technological advances make first-strike more tempting, and as the inertia of aggressive coldwar posturing continues virtually unchallenged. 1984 by The Regents o f the University of CaliforniaThis symbolic nightmare of our modern culture has become a real nightmare for some children. Here are the words of twelve-year-old Catherine Rich responding to a Boston Globe interview in 1981:I had a nightmare of the bomb floating toward me and I could feel my blood spurting all over the place; but now it's better knowing it will be so fast. I feel scared but relieved at the same time. It's like having cancer and at least being told you have it (1).Statements like Catherine's are commonly cited in both lay and professional journals as our society begins to reflect on what it means to grow up in the nuclear age. Educators, psychologists, sociologists, and health professionals have contributed to this analysis.Catherine's dream exemplifies the difficulty in approaching the problem of growing up in the nuclear age. Her words are compelling and strong. In an attempt to understand the uncertainty and finality that nuclear war represents, she has invoked the analogy of cancer to explain her feelings and interpret what this dream meant to her. Cancer and nuclear war are both complex concepts, and yet both are quite simple in their finality. Both can serve as a source of anxiety and fear as well as confusion and misunderstanding. Is Catherine an overly sensitive, articulate child who is more affected than her peers by the world she lives in, or are most children having similar dreams?Powerful dream recollections and other statements by children about nuclear war raise many 36 MOBIUS questions about our culture, and about the pressure on children and the challenges they face. h s long as the content of dreams has been recorded, people have dreamt of destruction in imagery that reflects the particular symbols of their culture. What does it mean for children to incorporate modern cultural symbols into their dream world? Surely dreams such as Catherine's must be troubling to parents and challenging to the adult stereotype of the sweet repose of the sleeping child. Are disturbing dreams about nuclear war symptomatic of a disturbed child or a disturbed culture?The popular psychology of our post-Freudian age has promoted psychological sophistication and familiarity with a vocabulary that encourages the analysis of most social phenomena in terms o f their psychological ...

Changing our ways of thinking. Health professionals and nuclear weapons

“…Developing a more realistic and di fferentiatecl perception o f the enemy is a high priority for many organizations concerned about nuclear weapons. Frank (77) notes that the enem!' image is subject to change when nations see interests in common.…”