Terrorism: A web of psychological reactions By MATT KAPKO Bay City News Service July 7, 2005 Terrorist attacks, like the series of transit bombings in London today, spin a web of psychological reactions that have consequences far beyond the immediate impacts of the bombings. "It stimulates tremendous fear,'' Dr. Jodi Halpern, a psychiatrist and professor of bioethics and medical humanities at the University of California at Berkeley, said today. "Fear can lead to catastrophic thinking'' and people tend to reflect on and react to the incident in "black and white terms,'' she said. "People are subject to cognitive distortions,'' Halpern said. "The likelihood of another bad event gets distorted in their minds.'' Halpern focuses on the psychological effects of war and mass conflict in her research, with the focal point being the importance of empathic response from authoritative figures. "People are really susceptible to the influence of authority figures when they're afraid,'' she said. "My emphasis is on the leaders. There's got to be tremendous role modeling.'' Leaders need to provide accurate, meaningful information that steers clear of dehumanizing those who may be responsible for the attacks, she said. "There's this very high risk of stereotyping,'' Halpern said. Ramping up a war-like mentality only fuels the public's fears and leads to "noxious social responses,'' she said. Nancy Bernstein, a licensed clinical social worker in Los Angeles, said her initial thoughts are with those who've lost loved ones. But destruction to one's community and a shattered sense of security also bring long-term effects to one's psychological well-being, she said. What she refers to as emotional scarring will never go away, but "the way the scar will look depends on the kind of help they have gotten,'' she said. "People have sleep difficulties, they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, flashbacks of the event -- the ground is not safe under your feet, the world is not a safe place,'' Bernstein said. "What really has been effected is our sense of security in the world,'' she said. "With terrorism, I think there is a lot more anger - life is precarious enough,'' she said. "It's hard enough just to get by day-to-day ... we don't need man-made disasters.'' She concluded: "It's sad because it makes life a lot harder.'' Following an event similar to today's bombing in London, namely, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the U.S., psychologists reported that 67 percent of their patients were adversely affected by the possibility of war, and 42 percent discussed the war and the threat of terrorism in therapy, according to a March 2003 American Psychological Association survey posted on their Web site. Home