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In a recent paper (American Imago, Fall 1981), Martin Wangh reveals the moral and traumatic impact of anticipating nuclear warfare. He discusses the “psychological fallout” effect not only on those who lived through the period of bomb testing, but how their children reacted having heard about it from their parents and the media. Invariably, fantasies arose based on recall of anxiety-ridden events from the past.
Wangh reminds us how the anxiety of young children reflects parental anxieties which range from defensive denial to helpless apprehension. He questions whether the precautionary school shelter exercises were meaningful for the children in any reality sense. It is likely that those exercises reenforced anxiety fantasies, especially when no parental assurance could be forthcoming. The precautionary drills, talk of the testing, together with hearing about the devastating effects at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (a relatively minor nuclear catastrophy) can easily be assumed to have increased anxieties and defensiveness.
The moral and traditional deterioration of our time may be related to the pessimism aroused by questioning whether anything can be done to arrest the forces leading us toward nuclear holocaust. Such a negative attitude may constitute resistance against exerting efforts to discipline one's self and sublimate, as witness the crime plaguing our communities, the attenuation of relationships, and increased emotional disturbances. A “what's the use?” attitude may lead to regressive indulgences (sexual or aggressive).
An active position calls for participation in combating the political and economic policy that resorts to destructive nuclear weapons.