![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/processworkhub.gr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lost-innocence.jpg\" "\\"lost")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n(\u03b1\u03c0\u03cc \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03ad\u03ba\u03b8\u03b5\u03c3\u03b7 In Search of Lost Innocence <\/em>\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u03bf\u03bc\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 Tesseract<\/a><\/p>\n \u03a0\u03b7\u03b3\u03ae: Psychology Today<\/a><\/p>\n Upon the Murder of 20 Children and 6 Adults in Connecticut<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A Challenge to Our Collective Innocence<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n by David Bedrick, J.D., Dipl. PW<\/span><\/p>\n Someone murdered 26 people this morning. Someone killed 20 children, innocent children. In my process of reflection (psychological reflection) I couldn\u2019t help but think that it was not just innocents that were assaulted but also, innocence itself; I couldn\u2019t help but think that maybe our \u201cinnocence\u201d needs a wake up call. While many say it is not time for philosophical or political discussion, I also feel that we can do something. We can act; we are not only powerless. I know that thinking psychologically so close to a moment of trauma can be insensitive; forgive me if my words insensitively injure or offend anyone.<\/p>\n James Baldwin in his seminal book, The Fire Next Time<\/em> wrote, \u201c[I]t is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.\u201d[1] Are we, as a culture, too innocent? Are there still too many people for whom this kind of violence seems like a rare event? Have we become too comfortable focusing our attention squarely on the killer\u2019s psychology while neglecting to look at the epidemic nature of American violence\u2014an epidemic that can\u2019t be ignored by analyzing one murderer? Have we become so accustomed to experiencing only feelings of powerlessness upon such horror that we inadvertently learn to close our eyes to the violence all around us as well as inside us?<\/p>\n I was reminded this morning of a newspaper story I read some twenty years ago titled \u201cDon\u2019t I Look Happy?\u201d about a blond-haired blue-eyed teen who had murdered his parents and siblings. The article suggested it was hard for anyone to have predicted that this boy, as reflected by his appearance, including his smiling face, would have had the potential for such horror. In connection with another incident some years later, when a television interviewer spoke to friends and neighbors about a high school shooting, they noted their surprise, saying that the shooter \u201calways seemed like a happy boy.\u201d Is this need to look happy, to keep others smiling, feeding a dangerous form of innocence? I think so.<\/p>\n The forces of denial, of a kind of collective amnesia, urge us to keep ourselves \u201clooking happy\u201d rather than show our pain, suffering, anger, and rage. We have become so invested in revealing only a narrow range of upbeat expressions that we don\u2019t notice the signs of violence, depression, stress, and distress behind the happy demeanor. We are so accustomed to people telling us they\u2019re \u201cfine\u201d that we no longer trust the feelings that arise when things are not \u201cfine.\u201d In other words, we no longer trust our distrust. Thus we don\u2019t see teenage girls on their knees throwing up in the toilet but instead admire their \u201cnice\u201d figures. We don\u2019t see businessmen in danger of having a heart attack as they eat and drink their way to relaxation but instead view their excesses as the privilege of success. We don\u2019t notice the difference between gritted teeth and gleaming teeth, strained faces and composed faces, eyes that glare and eyes that glow. Our vision leans toward seeing the light but not the dark. Our disconnectedness ensures that these dark aspects of people remain hidden.<\/p>\n It is time for many of us to come out with our deeper feelings and experiences\u2014our pain, our sadness, our anger, our grief, our hurt. It is time for us to recognize these feelings in others. Otherwise we collude in the violence by hiding; we collude by not seeing. Cornel West, author and Princeton University professor said, \u201cThere is something about American folk. They\u2019re so obsessed with comfort, convenience, and contentment. It\u2019s just like living in a hotel where the lights are always on.\u201d[2] It\u2019s time to learn to \u201csee\u201d in the dark. It is my hope that psychology can help us do just that.<\/p>\n [1] James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Vintage, 1991 [1962]), 5-6.<\/p>\n [2] Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words & Wisdom (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2008), 29.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u039f \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2 David Bedrick, \u03b3\u03c1\u03ac\u03c6\u03b5\u03b9 \u03b3\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf \u03c6\u03bf\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc \u03c3\u03c4\u03bf Connecticut… (\u03b1\u03c0\u03cc \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03ad\u03ba\u03b8\u03b5\u03c3\u03b7 In Search of Lost Innocence \u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u03bf\u03bc\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 Tesseract \u03a0\u03b7\u03b3\u03ae: Psychology Today Upon the Murder of 20 Children and 6 Adults in Connecticut A Challenge to Our Collective Innocence by David Bedrick, J.D., Dipl. PW Someone murdered 26 people this morning. 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