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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview with Dr. Joyce Brothers

Aired May 26, 2002 - 11:48   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well this week crews in New York will wrap up recovery efforts at Ground Zero. It's the end of one chapter, the beginning of another. You're looking live now at Ground Zero, just days now before the work there is to end.

Joining us now from New York is psychologist and syndicated columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers to give us an idea of how confusing some of the emotions just might be for those people who live in Lower Manhattan, who have been working there. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Brothers.

DR. JOYCE BROTHERS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Thank you, Fredricka, for inviting me.

WHITFIELD: Well -

BROTHERS: There's some brand new research being done by Dr. Tom Smith and Dr. Michael Telcott (ph) on the emotions that people have after three defining times, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy and the 9/11 terrorist attack. And surprisingly, Americans did better with their emotional response to the attack, the terrorist attack because they were able to take their fear and channel it into anger. You can't have anger and fear at the same (CROSSTALK).

WHITFIELD: Well I imagine there are an awful lot of mixed emotions in this case, particularly for a lot of work crews who have been working tirelessly at Ground Zero. They have to be feeling both relief and pain that this just might be over.

BROTHERS: Relief and pain but also they were able to feel good about themselves, because they were able to do something. People tried very hard to do something after 9/11, go give blood. We felt comfortable about the fact that we were attacking the terrorists and that we, as a country, were all behind the president as much as we can be as a country. There's always dissidents everywhere, but we felt comfortable about that, that we were taking steps.

When we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, the new studies say, we felt shame and anger but there was no fear because it was at a distance and because it seemed right to us that we had a matter of attack on the military.

WHITFIELD: In this case, we are feeling an awful lot of fear - BROTHERS: An enormous amount.

WHITFIELD: And that fear being exacerbated by continued threats, threats or warnings that we keep getting from our, you know, administrative leaders of this country.

BROTHERS: We were able for a period of time to reduce the amount of fear that we felt and go back to normal, but now psychologists and psychiatrists have seen people returning to their offices back in to a feeling of, I don't know what's going to happen and a great deal of worry. We are a very worried nation and some people are so worried that they are really needing psychological and psychiatric help.

WHITFIELD: And so how do you see that most people are going to be channeling their energies, or what would your recommendation be as to how to channel these energies?

BROTHERS: This is a very difficult period for us because we felt that if we, you know, we accepted the fact that we could go to work and something terrible could happen, so we channeled our energies into our families, into new relationships, into marriage, into having children.

But now, we have a free floating anxiety because there's no place to channel it. Now we can't go home to our apartments without worrying that maybe home isn't a safety or refuge any longer. So we're seeing this rising tide of fear and only with anger can we deal with it.

After President Kennedy was shot, we were ashamed because it happened in our country and so - but we had no way of channeling that because the assassin was gone. Now in our war effort, we have at least some opportunity to feel that we are doing something, but it's very hard to say that anything will be done that is accurate because we don't know where the next will come, and we can not predict it and we have many more fears than we have joyous emotions or we wouldn't have survived as human beings.

WHITFIELD: And other examples of some of those adverse effects, even after Oklahoma City bombing, there there were people who exhibited fears of going into tall building, the sight of tall buildings, and some families found that there was so much stress the divorce rate was going up involving a lot of the families who experienced that firsthand.

BROTHERS: Uh huh and six months after when studies were done of what happened, a lot of people quit their jobs because they felt their jobs were unimportant in light of the bombing, and then three months later, they tried to go back to those jobs and they couldn't. It was closed. Other people had their jobs.

Many people married the person they intended to marry or even someone they had no intention to marry before and then they were divorced.

WHITFIELD: So, Dr. Brothers, how can we look at this in some sort of optimistic view? What kind of hope can we try to give to people as they are struggling with some of these anxieties?

BROTHERS: Well I think first of all that we need to be close to people. We need to reach out. If we are the kind of person who is not suffering from worry, and about half of us are over worrying.

WHITFIELD: OK.

BROTHERS: If we are the person who is calm, at least try to calm your neighbor, try to be the person that will listen to the fears of others.

WHITFIELD: It's important then to continue to pull together. Dr. Joyce Brothers, thank you very much for joining us from New York.

BROTHERS: Thank you for the invitation.

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