Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Interview With Dr. Alvin Poissant
Aired March 11, 2002 - 13:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For more on learning to live with the losses of 9/11, we turn now to Dr. Alvin Poissant for some expert advice. The Harvard Medical School professor is live in Boston. Doctor, good to see you. Good afternoon to you.
DR. ALVIN POISSANT, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: Good afternoon.
HEMMER: I don't know if you heard Stephen Push, but his story is just of one of thousands and thousands that so many people are experiencing today. From a medical standpoint, from an expert standpoint, how do you respond? What do you say to what we just heard from him?
POISSANT: Well, I think he is responding to all of the emphasis and media attention to the six-month anniversary. And there is too much...
HEMMER: Is it too much?
POISSANT: I think it is too much. He himself said it was too much, that it reawakens the pain, the suffering, the fear, the grief that they experienced on that very tragic day and when they lost loved ones, even the planes, in the towers in New York. I think to be bombarded with these images over and over again and revisit them reawakens a lot of the anxiety and fear and the stress and the depression that they experienced originally. And it is very, very unpleasant, and it is hard to know if it serves any purpose at this point.
HEMMER: I know you are not a media consultant, but I'm really curious to know more about your answer right there. How do we then walk that fine line of trying to remember, tell the story and also show a lot of respect here, too?
POISSANT: That is a tough one. I think perhaps it should be toned down, perhaps it shouldn't be so much of it. I think though the public themselves may have to take control in that they have to not watch it. Particularly, they shouldn't let their children watch a lot of these scenes over and over again, reawaken their fears.
How the media handles it inside, that's a big, complicated question that has to do with news coverage and the economics of the news and so on. But I think it could be toned down and I don't see any need to rush at this point and to giving so much coverage to the six-month anniversary. It seems a little bit forced to me because six months is usually not an anniversary that we pay attention to in regard to other things. Usually the one-year anniversary is the occasion and a lot of people will experience that automatically come September the 11. They are going to remember that very horrific day in America.
HEMMER: Well, I really agree with that last answer. Six months is just a blip when it comes to looking back on history. But if we go to one year, the one-year marker, does it become easier at that point to digest?
POISSANT: Well, I think some people might feel more healed at that point. But it will feel more appropriate that they, in some way, again pay attention and have memorials to the people on the first-year anniversary. I think that's more reasonable and seems more appropriate than doing it at six months or one month or two months, so that I think we can kind of spare a lot of people having to revisit this over and over and over again in the same way, stirring up these types of feelings.
And not just for the people who lost loved ones, but for the entire country. I know people who watch programs last night on television who got very, very upset even if they weren't graphic, but just again taking themselves back in time to that day and the emotions they experience. It may be particularly difficult for people who may be suffering from any variety of post-traumatic stress syndrome, to see -- having them revisit it will, in fact, stir up all the feelings of that trauma of that particular day.
HEMMER: Quickly, Doctor, fully respecting your opinion here, give us a gauge of how we should feel knowing that we are not victims directly from this tragedy? I've talked to people this morning at work and we said, you know, we feel like we should be in church and not at work today. And I've talked to people who turned the TV off at 8:30 this morning or even did not turn it on all day today or watch that program last night on CBS. How do we interpret our own feelings today?
POISSANT: Well, I think we have to ask, why do we want to watch it over and over again? I think some people, it may be more of a curiosity. I think some people are concerned. Some people perhaps want to suffer a little bit, who are masochistic, watching it. But I think also it is because what the media is offering, and in some ways, it has some excitement to it. And the period is not over with because we are still at war in Afghanistan. So I think this is a way of keeping people geared up in some way for the fight.
You know, it could become a situation where, you know, and I'm not comparing this to the Holocaust, but what I'm saying is that frequently, people are reminded of the Holocaust so that they never forget it. Now, maybe the United States may be heading toward never forgeting 9/11 because maybe for the next 50 or 100 years, we are going to be fighting terrorism around the world. So it is kind of never again, we are going to keep this in front of the public constantly so that they are ever reminded of this tragedy and our response to it. HEMMER: Thank you for your views, Dr. Alvin Poissant, live there in Boston. Thank you, sir.
POISSANT: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
