Countering ‘Psychic Numbing' in the Trump Era

New York Times

5 days ago

To the Editor:
Re 'The Most Dangerous Phase of the Trump Era Is Now,' by M. Gessen (column, June 1):
M. Gessen does us a powerful service. It comes under the category of alerting us to what I have called 'malignant normality.' Falsehoods are put forward as facts of nature, both all-consuming and inevitable. Terrible events become commonplace and fuel our tendency toward psychic numbing.
Combating this numbing requires witnesses, and M. Gessen has called it out in both Russia and America.
Witnessing is a necessity for recovering truth and stirring active resistance.
Robert Jay LiftonTruro, Mass.The writer is a psychiatrist and the author, most recently, of 'Surviving Our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal From Hiroshima to the Covid-19 Pandemic.'
To the Editor:
''I Even Believe He Is Destroying the American Presidency,'' by Thomas B. Edsall (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, May 20), should be required reading for every member of Congress.
I vote in every election. I affirm what was suggested in the article: that we didn't vote to destroy the government of the country we love.
My friends and neighbors didn't vote to stop American universities from leading the world in science innovation. We didn't vote to stop medical research. We didn't vote to decrease SNAP benefits and make neighbors hungrier.
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