As the war in Afghanistan winds down and the relentless hunt for Osama bin Laden continues, our government is gearing up for what is promised to be a long battle against the shadowy, ubiquitous enemy of world wide Terrorism. Leaders from the corporate, scientific and technical sectors of our country are collaborating to develop strategies for combating almost every conceivable kind of terrorist attack – bio-terrorism, cyber-terrorism, nuclear-terrorism, terrorism against our resevoirs, grain stores, food delivery systems, and of course airlines, tunnels and bridges. They are working on the assumption of international enemies with sophisticated technologies and ample resources to deliver lethal attacks that would cripple our nation’s functioning. Putting their big security plans into operation will cost billions of "better safe now than sorry later" taxpayers’ dollars. Given the current state of national angst over the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, along with the anthrax mail contamination, most Americans are ready to pay almost any price for greater security.

But what is missing in this big view of the demonic, technologically saavy Enemy bent on mass destruction? Missing is the recognition of the less obvious psychological perspective on what terrorism is all about. Terrorism is the process of inducing fear in the general population by means of acts that undercut an established sense of trust, stability and confidence in one’s personal world. Unpredictable, dramatic acts of seemingly random violence are the terrorist’s signature. Our fear is a realistic emotional response to events that can harm us, and we react to fear by fleeing or fighting it, or freezing in its presence. Fear becomes anxiety when it generalizes beyond the specific danger situation to become a more pervasive feeling of personal vulnerability to things that are not intrinsically dangerous, but are linked symbolically or historically to danger. Anxiety may be triggered by current events that link to unresolved earlier conflicts, to feelings of loss of control, or to childhood states of inadequacy. The actual danger of most terrorist attacks is relatively small compared to on-going dangers in our every day lives, such as accidents, stress-induced heart attacks, obesity-induced diabetes, or disability and death from smoking. It is the irrational anxiety that terrorists are able to spread wide and deep that amplifies their impact. Kill one president, make everyone feel threatened. Torture and rape a few and make many feel insecure. Destroy a building and have citizens worry that their’s will be next. The terrorists’ omnipresent weapon is exaggerated fear that spreads into action-crippling anxieties, especially when delivered repeatedly by television and print media. It is more likely that terrorists would suicide bomb some urban subways or time bomb a few rural school buses than poison our water or food supply. The key to combating terrorism is adopting their minimalist mind set of the rippling impact of singularly dramatic deeds, not using the lens of our grand vision of what major calamity we would inflict given our power -- if we were terrorists.

In a profound sense, everything of terrorism is about psychology. Beyond their mind games is the way we cope with their threat. When national leaders repeatedly issue alarms for hyper-vigilance, they ignore all the psychological research about the negative effects of non- specific warnings without any action focus – only making us more paranoid and less mindfully alert. Many of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have turned to psychologists for counsel, therapy and aid to help with their overwhelming personal and family grief and stress, and we have continued to give them our services freely. Psychology is also at work in the remarkable transformation that has been taking place in communities throughout the United States. We have changed since our initial sense of feeling victimized as the hated enemy of unknown forces, as being vulnerable in a way Americans have never felt on our homeland. We are developing a more thoughtful, mature outlook on life, sensitive to the preciousness and fragility of all life, and aware of the need to connect more deeply to family and friends. Research shows that reinforcing one’s social support network is the single most powerful act any of us can do to improve our health and longevity. There seems to a be a shift away from our preoccupation with future goals and materialistic ambitions towards a better blending of our time frames to include present joys and indulgences as well as embracing past links to our roots and spiritual values. In volunteering money, blood and services, more Americans than ever before are reaching out to help our near and distant neighbors. We have all been the beneficiaries of learning of the sacrifices of so many ordinary men and women in police, fire and emergency forces at Ground Zero, who have become the nation’s new breed of hero, replacing celebrities and the idle rich and famous.