Psychic numbing
Psychic numbing is a tendency for individuals or societies to withdraw attention from past experiences that were traumatic, or from future threats that are perceived to have massive consequences but low probability.
[1][2] Psychic numbing can be a response to threats as diverse as financial and economic collapse, the risk of nuclear weapon detonations, pandemics, and global warming.
[1] All these are argued by Lifton to be beneficial at times, however rather inadequate for helping people feel better about the ubiquity of nuclear weapons and potential warfare.
There needs to be a sense of control[1][2][3][6] in order to comprehend the consequences of nuclear warfare as well as strategies to combat the psychological grip it has on individuals.
[1][6] He has worked with them before and noticed partial changes, while he agrees this is good, society must adapt an awareness that aims to teach and educate as opposed to avoid and withdraw from the potential threats to survival.
Therefore, neuroscience and the biological activity that occurs within the brain is employed to give people a better understanding of the thought process of individuals who engage in psychic numbing.
[7] This means it may play an active role in identifying important behavioral responses necessary to comprehend the consequences of the aversive stimuli.
[7] These studies are also a good paradigm for the understanding of psychic numbing because they consider sustained aversive material and how the brain reacts in a habitual manner in an effort to remove the underlying emotional content.
[8] Norepinephrine (NE) is released by the Locus coeruleus, it is then transferred to the limbic system where much of the memory consolidation and fight or flight responses are facilitated.
The original view of psychic numbing dealt with human extinction and the mass response to potentially life-threatening scenarios.
Focus groups, clinical cases, as well as religion play a crucial role in one's ability to cope with the stress of traumatic stimuli.
Slovic's article, "Psychic Numbing and Mass Atrocity", returns to the collectivist model and most notably confronts the value of saving a human's life.
Slovic took Weber's law and incorporated prospect theory, which is decision making based on potential gains and losses, not the actual outcome.
[2] These are all considered collectivist views of psychic numbing because they encapsulate a general theory of mind held by the majority of citizens in a society.
Additionally, these views remain consistent with the original concept of which collective avoidance and attention withdrawal becomes the active state of mind in regards to potential threats of mass extinction.
[10] There are three elements that attribute to psychic numbing:[10] These two mechanisms promote the inability to engage emotionally with a traumatic memory (acceptance), thus impairing the process of recovery.
[10][11] Susan Gill bridges the disciplines of social psychology and neuropsychology in her analysis of psychic numbing by explaining that there are notable behavioral changes, the most typical trait is being zombie-like and in a "dead-zone".
[14] Cancer patients also report a self-distancing mechanism, and take on a third-person perspective as a means of dealing with the life-threatening disease.
[13][14] As described earlier, research on psychic numbing has suggested that people who become desensitized to suffering may be more adept in dealing with an upsetting or dangerous situation.
