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LCM Bookstore: Order Tapes and Transcripts Check out The Infinite Mind's broadcast date and time in your area
Copyright © 1997-2002
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 State of Mind: America 2002: Resilience: How Are We Coping? Returning to John Hockenberry in New York we hear from a few more audience members. Ken Thompson is from Oklahoma City. His mother was killed in the bombing there. She was the last person to be identified. Mr. Thompson credits the way he was raised and his sense of humor, his ability to laugh in a horrific time, for helping him get through the aftermath of his loss. Audience member Tom Ryan is a New York City firefighter. He talks about the tight-knit firefighter culture helping men pull through. But there are also those who feel far more comfortable now in the firehouse than with their families. He himself feels pride in the incredible performance of many men he trained, but as a survivor he feels much sadness regarding those he's lost. John Hockenberry asks Mr. Ryan if he remembers the first time he laughed after September 11th and what it was about. He does, and he mentions how firefighters often use humor to help them through the terrible situations they experience on the job. Then Hockenberry introduces the program's third set of panelists, Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford University's Psychosocial Treatment Laboratory and Emmy award-winning comedian Al Franken. Dr. Spiegel explains that humor is a way of seeing the same situation from two points of view and so can be a useful defense. Humor is a way for people to deal with horrible things but give themselves a sense of distance from those things. It's important for people to be able to use their contacts with others to help those others, and this can give meaning to an otherwise terrible situation. He has seen this in work he's done with women suffering from breast cancer. Al Franken talks about how he went down to Ground Zero about a week after September 11th with the Creative Coalition. He spoke to some firefighters who told him their stories about what happened to them on that day. These stories are terrible in the details but they also involve using humor as a response to stress. John Hockenberry asks Dr. Spiegel if there is a profile of a resilient individual. He identifies three important qualities of such people. One, they're open to their own emotions; they know what they are feeling and don't feel compelled to pretend that everything is fine if it's not. Two, they do things with other people. Being with people, as others have mentioned throughout the program, is healing and helps us transcend our own sense of vulnerability. Three is being flexible regarding the meaning of things, being able to reframe and reprioritize when necessary. Now, Al Franken's Saturday Night Live character Stuart Smalley makes an appearance. Audience member Ken Thompson stands up again and they discuss the first moment after the Oklahoma City bombing when he laughed. Believe it or not, it involves him and his brother sorting through his mother's effects and finding a pair of bright red panties, after which they both laughed for 15 minutes. Dr. Spiegel discusses how shame cuts people off from others and prevents them from seeking out the resources that are all around them. Al Franken is asked if he wants the last word, to which he replies, simply, "no." |
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