Neither liberty nor safety: the impact of fear on individuals, institutions,and societies, part II

Abstract

This is the second in a series of four papers that look at the ways that minds and bodies of individuals are affected by severe stress and use that as a way of developing a deeper understanding of what happens to stressed individuals who come together to form stressed organizations and the impact of this stress on organizational leaders. The series will also explore the parallel process that occurs when traumatized individuals and stressed organizations come together to form stressed societies. Part I focused on the basic human stress response. In Part II, we will begin exploring the more extended impact of severe, chronic, and repetitive exposure to stress on the functioning of the emotional system, the ways in which human beings tend to adapt to adversity and thus come to normalize highly abnormal behaviour.