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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed life, as we knew it, forever. The American sense of security and invulnerability was destroyed along with the World Trade Center Towers and the west wing of the Pentagon. The killing of more than 3000 people, most of whom were never found, has left hundreds of children without parents and spouses without partners. Television brought the atrocious images of trauma into our homes such that much of the world shared the experience of horror, disbelief, and fear. Terrorism had finally dealt America a severe blow, scarring the American psyche and leaving many people feeling that things would never be the same.
On September 11, we witnessed the destruction of the naïve American belief of security and invulnerability and the disintegration of the illusion that the horrors of war and terrorism were something that happened beyond our borders. The tidal waves of the horror and nationalism in our country reached people around the world, creating a strong sense of international unity in many people. This is the context of terror created by the September 11 attacks on America and the resulting destruction of the sense of certainty, security, predictability, and ongoingness-of-being.