Robert Jay Lifton
(1926-)

American Psychiatrist, Author
Gandhi Peace Award Winner

birthdate: May 16
birthplace:
Brooklyn, New York

QUOTES

Every adult in the world has some sense that he or she might be obliterated at any time by these weapons that we have created.

I think the practical alternative to what we've been doing in relation to terrorism is to act in concert with other countries, with other groups.

our absolute power in the world has very dangerous psychological reverberations for us and for the world.

To attribute the scandal at Abu Ghraib to "a few bad apples" or to "individual failures" is poor psychology and self-serving pseudomorality. To be sure, individual soldiers and civilians who participated in it are accountable for their behavior, even under such pressured conditions. But the greater responsibility lies with those who planned and executed the war on Iraq and the "war on terrorism" of which it is a part, and who created, in policy and attitude, the accompanying denial of rights of captives and suspects.

Psychologically and ethically, responsibility for the crimes at Abu Ghraib extends to the Defense Secretary, the Attorney General and the White House. Those crimes are a direct expression of the kind of war we are waging in Iraq.

there's no inherent human nature that requires us to kill or maim. We can go either way. We have the potential for precisely that behavior of the Nazis or of what we did in Vietnam, or of some kind of more altruistic or cooperative behavior. We can go either way.

Stepping off the superpower treadmill would also enable us to cease being a nation ruled by fear. Renouncing omnipotence would make our leaders themselves less fearful of weakness, and diminish their inclination to instill fear in their people as a means of enlisting them for illusory military efforts at world hegemony. Without the need for invulnerability, everyone would have much less to be afraid of.

[Our biggest opportunity at this moment in history is] perhaps a deeper connection with all human beings. That kind of connection, made possible by our various technologies, simply couldn’t exist before recent times. The connection guarantees nothing, but it does offer an opportunity for expressions of a global spirit, or what I call a “species consciousness” or “species self.” What that means is not that one ceases to be an American, or a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Hindu. One is any of those and at the same time, in one’s own sense of self, a human being. This kind of species consciousness is expanding. Perhaps it represents our greatest opportunity.

 

Kids | Youth | Adults | Calendar | Quotes | Heroes | Stories | The EMILY Fund | Scholarships
DO ONE THING and BetterWorld Kids Clubs are projects of The EMILY Fund (The Emily Silverstein Fund, Inc.)
Hero portraits are included for illustration purposes only - no celebrity endorsement implied

The Emily Fund
Education, Mentorship, Inspiration, Leadership, Youth
- for a Better
World

PO Box 430
Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0430
info@EmilyFund.org