International Psychoanalysis

2 Comments on “Newtown: Why Healing Should Still Trump Policy”

1. Erminia Scarcella MD Says:
   December 19th, 2012 at 9:12 pm

   TEH ARTICLE MISS THE IMPORTANT ASPECT: THE HEALING PROCESS CAN AND SHOULD COEXIST WITH THE NEED TO WORK WITH GUN CONTROL AND IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH [ACCESS TO CARE AND FREEDOM FROM INSURANCE COMPANIES TO TREAT PATIENTS ACCORDING TO THE EVALUATION MADE BY THE EXPERT IN MENTAL HEALTH]
   USA HAS MILLION OF PEOPLE AND SOME WILL HELP HEALING OTHERS DEAL WITH THE 2 IMPORTANT ISSUES JUST MENTIONED ABOVE.
   THE 2 TASK ASSIGNMENT IS A COOPERATION TO ACHIEVE PRIMARY PREVENTION AND SECONDARY PREVENTION.

2. Richard Almond, MD Says:
   December 23rd, 2012 at 11:11 am

   Of course those affected need time for psychological recovery, and the careful attention of those equipped to treat trauma. But focus on this alone misses the opportunity that this horrible event creates for prevention of future mass murders. Viewed from almost anywhere outside America, we are caught in a state of mass denial of the epidemic of gun-owning among us, and the accompanying aggressive/paranoid fantasies that facilitate not only ownership, but in a few individuals, action.

   We should remember that the present situation is one artificially created by the gun industry (whose profit rates in the past 10 year far exceed Apple, Google, and so on), and the well-paid leadership of the NRA. In other words, the gun epidemic is an aberration of recent history, not a long-standing constitutional issue or a mental health problem. Guns are simply too available, too lethal, too legitimized in the media and in right wing talking points.

   All significant social movements begin as minority opinions (think abolition, civil rights, the social safety net, entry into WW II). Events and persistent pressure on political leaders, together with the gradual joining in of political leaders, builds a momentum for change of entrenched assumptions.

   Australia and England were able, after mass shootings, to make such changes, and their rates of mass killing have sunk to zero, and gun deaths declined significantly.

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