Israeli psychologist: U.S. must deal with vulnerability

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

Yehuda Shacham, an Israeli psychologist who has been helping his country respond to terrorism for 20 years, said Americans, in the wake of Tuesday's attacks, must come to grips with their own vulnerability.

Shacham was in Las Vegas Monday as part of a 23-city tour by Israeli diplomats and citizens, but, after the attacks, was asked by the Israeli consulate to cut the tour short and return to Los Angeles.

"We try to think of ourselves as invulnerable," Shacham said during a telephone interview Wednesday.

"Not knowing or ignoring the bad things that may happen helps us to survive to a certain degree. But in Israel, we have had to open this curtain and prepare ourselves for possible danger on a daily basis for years.

"This event has now made the American public move its own curtain, and see that danger exists on its own soil."

Shacham said that America is now in a state of shock after facing its own vulnerability. Apart from the drawn-out process of grieving for those directly affected by the tragedy, he said the majority of the American public may move from initial reactions of shock, panic, and anxiety to a stage of forgetting in order to return to daily life.

"Unless this sort of terrorist act is repeated, Americans may try and forget what happened. But this would carry a great psychological price, and should be avoided."

He said that Israeli society has created social networks in workplaces and schools to help people respond psychologically to terrorist violence, and that this could be useful in the United States, although he said the fast pace of American culture may make such a tool difficult to put in place.

"Sooner or later, though, this all has to be dealt with. And then you have to ask yourself -- What would I do if I was in a similar situation? And, how can I prepare my children for such an act of violence?

"I hope nothing like this ever happens again to the American public, but being psychologically prepared is vital for surviving as a nation."