Word: lifton
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Robert Jay Lifton is not a Jungian. Often, in fact, his psychological work tends to border on descriptive sociology. (His works on the psychological effects of nuclear holocaust on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have become classics in the field.) In his latest book, Dr. Lifton has also raised some challenging questions about attempt a general philosophical statement about the boundaries which define life in an age of revolution. The very boldness of the idea-a Yale psychology professor is attempting to define the nature of man's existence-is enough to make the book noteworthy...
...LIFTON uses his work with atom-bomb survivors as the jumping-off point for this study. The survivors of the bombings, he says, found themselves confronted with a set of boundaries with which they had never had to deal. Those were the boundaries of destruction, which had previously seemed obvious and somewhat controllable. In a normal war, Lifton says, men are killed by bullets or arrows, and the community suffers a loss, but there is a clear set of limits to the destruction. The atomic bomb for the first time has confronted man with a "permanent encounter" with death...
...Lifton does point to one "encouraging sign." He says that younger scientists, since the "Research Stoppage Day" of March 4, 1969, "are going through real self-examination for the first time, by examining the uses to which science is put. . . They can't help but be exposed to some questions they wouldn't have been exposed to even two years...
...twenty-fifth anniversary of Hiroshima's destruction, Lifton has worked with some peace groups to sponsor commemorative activities throughout America...
...Lifton was Research Associate in psychology at Harvard from 1956 to 1961, and was, at that time, also affiliated with the Center for East Asian Studies here...