WTC.trauma.thought.

## The Ongoing Impact of the Trauma of 9-11

? Trauma is the experience of being psychologically overwhelmed. When traumatized, a person is rendered impotent. At that moment, they are incapable of coping either intellectually or emotionally. Research has shown that trauma leaves a person changed both psychologically and physiologically (Van der Kolk and Van der Hart, 1991). Trauma alters a person’s thinking patterns, emotional responses, and even biochemistry (Van der Kolk and Van der Hart,1991; Van der Kolk,1994). Trauma survivors frequently experience depression, anxiety, difficulty responding to new situations, rigid thinking, defensiveness, paranoia, aggressiveness, over-reactivity to mild stress, and increased health problems (Van der Kolk and Van der Hart,1991; Van der Kolk,1993; Van der Kolk,1994). "

Emotions, Intelligence and Creativity Our ability to think and function is directly related to the emotional state we are in. We have all experienced this when we were so upset we couldn’t think straight, words escaped us, and we mumbled inappropriate comments. Later when we calmed down, we could think again. Once out of that state, our intellectual abilities returned. When we feel relaxed and safe, we have access to our full intellectual capabilities. Studies on creativity and learning show that emotional safety is essential to optimal use of the human intellect (Rose,1985; Kline, 1988) When we are under stress, we begin to lose our more advanced intellectual capabilities. Leslie Hart (1983) labeled this "downshifting". When we downshift, we operate in a more primitive, rigid, simple-minded way. Caine and Caine (1994) write: When we downshift, we revert to the tried and true... Our responses become more automatic and limited. We are less able to access all that we know or see what is really there. Our ability to consider subtle environmental and internal cues is reduced. We also seem less able to engage in complex intellectual tasks, those requiring creativity and the ability to engage in open-ended thinking and questioning. (pg. 72) Thus, when a person is under extreme stress, they become less flexible, less creative, and less intelligent. In this state, they operate at only a fraction of their creative and productive potential. Becoming Primitive When we downshift, the brain region necessary for effective intellectual functioning, our Modern Brain, gets overwhelmed. Because we still need to function and respond, we use our Primitive Brain. As mentioned previously, this "brain within a brain" interprets and responds to the world in a much less intellectually sophisticated way than the Modern Brain. The Reptilian region of the Primitive Brain is most relevant to our discussion because it is believed to be the repository of primitive "hard wired" survival responses related to executing daily routines, protecting one’s territory, and establishing dominance and control (MacLean,1983). We have all experienced Reptilian Brain responses. Two common examples are feeling uneasy when our routine has been interrupted and feeling angry when someone sits in our favorite chair or at our desk without asking. Despite telling ourselves we shouldn’t be upset, we are; the survival programs of the Primitive Brain have been activated, sending us signals that something is wrong. When our more sophisticated, intellectually advanced neocortical capabilities get overwhelmed; these primitive responses engage; resulting in aggressive, inflexible, and territorial reactions. We see the Reptilian Brain in action when people feel emotionally threatened. They become aggressive, defensive, and rigid. We see it in people who are feeling insecure and become "control freaks". We see it in turf battles, power struggles, and mindless insistence on doing things "like we’ve always done them." The effects of trauma on the brain pose serious problems for employers who are trying to cultivate a productive workforce. Chronically stressed employees, because of downshifting, end up operating out of their Primitive Brain. Unless we want employees who are acting according to the law of the jungle and who are using a small fraction of their intellectual capabilities, we need to create environments which allow the more intellectually and socially advanced processes of the neocortex to be engaged. What Happens When We Don’t Address Trauma? To illustrate how trauma affects our efforts at cultivating more effective workers and organizations, let’s take a few of today’s popular training and organizational development initiatives and examine how they are compromised by employee trauma. Managing Change Personal and corporate survival requires the ability to embrace and respond effectively to rapid change. The accelerating rate of change are usually cited as the greatest source of stress for today’s workers. The interplay between the brain and overwhelming stress creates a vicious cycle which interferes with a person’s ability to cope with stress. The overwhelmed person, operating out of their Primitive Brain; will likely be very rigid, territorial, and wedded to the "old ways". The more threatened a person feels, the more they need to stick to their routines and familiar ways for security. Responding from the Primitive Brain, the traumatized person fights change. The more they fight it, the less effective they will be in responding to the inevitable, thus reducing their sense of self-efficacy and mastery. This further reduces their ability to respond effectively when future changes occur, adding to their Cumulative Emotional Trauma. Diversity The ability to appreciate, respect, and value diversity is becoming increasingly more important in our increasingly more diverse workplace. Yet, when a person is operating from their Primitive Brain, they don’t have access to the higher cognitive functions which make this possible. Our modern brain enables us to make logical assessments of people and generate intelligent interpretations of their character and intentions. It also enables us to reflect on our emotional responses to people and challenge them when they appear irrational and unfounded. Our Primitive Brain operates very differently. It was designed to see the world in simplistic, stereotyped ways (Ornstein and Ehrlich,1989). In prehistoric times, our ancestor’s survival depended upon their ability to quickly size up a situation with minimal information and then respond immediately. They couldn’t sit, study, and analyze whether the animal running toward them was dangerous or a potential meal. They had to get just enough information to make a decision, and then act quickly. Contemplation and analysis would have resulted in death. Our survival needs resulted in the ability to form "caricatures" - simplistic templates which contained just enough detail to dictate a response (Ornstein and Ehrlich,1989). While this served a significant purpose during a time when our survival was constantly in jeopardy, it can cause us serious problems in today’s very different world. When we downshift and revert to Primitive Brain thinking, we don’t take the time to understand a person. With minimal information about them as an individual; we fit them into a simplistic caricature of their gender, ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic group; and then come to a conclusion about who they are. We don’t bother and take in any more information because we already "know" what they are like. Our caricature has "informed" us all about them. The categorization of people into "Us" verses "Them" is the most simplistic level of caricatures we engage in. In his studies of xenophobia throughout the animal kingdom, Holloway (1974) notes the remnants of this hard-wired response in humans: "We overcome this to some extent through cultural learning, and a pride in and positive value on tolerance and goodwill. But put stress on the system, and the age-old dispositions are dominant." pg. 8 Once the primitive "Us verses Them" Schema engage, anyone who does not fit the significant characteristics of the "Us" template becomes one of "Them". This becomes more damaging when combined with the Primitive Brain’s hard-wired survival orientation. When the Primitive Brain’s defensive, survival programs engage; people who are one of "Them" are viewed as a threat. Empathy, understanding, and open communication are replaced by territoriality, prejudice, power games, and protectionistic gambits. Creativity Studies on creativity show undeniably that a low threat environment is essential for creative thought (Martindale,1990; Russ, 1993). When people are feeling threatened, their thought process becomes rigid and tradition bound, both Reptilian Brain qualities. Furthermore, when stressed, the mind becomes focused on the stressor. This prevents divergent thinking - the ability to broaden one’s perspective to include less obvious associations and possibilities, which is the hallmark of creative thought (Martindale, 1990; Russ, 1993). Studies on uncontrollable stressors have shown that people in situations of uncontrollable stress demonstrate very shallow, simplistic thought processes (Pennebaker, 1990). Other studies have linked uncontrollable stressors to a subsequent decrease in cognitive abilities (Seligman,1972). As a way to defend against trauma, some people develop a thinking style which prevents them from intellectually and emotionally acknowledging the pain of their experiences. This results in thought processes which are concrete, superficial, and unimaginative (Pennebaker,1990); hardly the breeding ground of creative breakthroughs. At the most basic intellectual level, trauma strips a person of their creative capacity. Total Quality Management TQM requires workers to have both a high level of functioning and commitment. An ability to see the big picture, a recognition of process, and a commitment to customer satisfaction are a few of the necessary ingredients for successful TQM implementation. Because of the cognitive deficits brought about by trauma induced downshifting; the more conceptual, lofty ideas become unimportant and probably unfathomable. Traumatized workers are focused on survival; not on long range plans or other people’s well-being. They are like the drowning person who is so frantic, they pull their would be rescuer underwater. The drowning person’s typical altruism or empathy isn’t available in their overwhelmed, terrified state. They are interested in, and can focus on, only one thing - survival. With the inability to conceptualize due to downshifting and the primal drive for individual survival activated, traumatized workers are not in a position to contribute to, or make use of, the kinds of paradigm and process shifts advocated in TQM.

The categorization of people into "Us" verses "Them" is the most simplistic level of caricatures we engage in. In his studies of xenophobia throughout the animal kingdom, Holloway (1974) notes the remnants of this hard-wired response in humans: "We overcome this to some extent through cultural learning, and a pride in and positive value on tolerance and goodwill. But put stress on the system, and the age-old dispositions are dominant." pg. --http://www.humannatureatwork.com/Workplace-Stress-3.htm

Together with the concept of cultural pseudospeciation, dehumanization is probably the most important proximate concept for understanding (mass)- violence phenomena, including warfare, 'ethnic cleansing', massacres and genocide, in humans (and probably as 'dechimpization' [Goodall, 1987] in chimpanzees too). There is a profound paradox involved in the process of dehumanization in the sense that one can only dehumanize what is recognized and acknowledged to be human in the first place.