Edited by Earl  Hopper and Haim Weinberg. London, UK:  Karnac, 2017. 262 pp

CREDO: What I believe

I believe we clinicians of group therapy and family therapy have a special role to play as human beings dedicated to the possibility of creating a world where freedom, justice, and equality abide not only in the families we treat but also in the world. We have the extraordinary opportunity–by our extensive work in groups and families–to see in a small way the panorama of human behavior and the wide spectrum of action that our fellow human beings take as they live their lives. Every day we witness others struggle within the limits of their freedom and their fate–to make choices and try to comprehend the destiny that limits their choices. It is our chosen vocation to help heal the many ways that families can suffer. In order to do that we must earn the trust of the families that come to us.

For most of my adult life I have been actively opposed to every foreign war the U.S. military has pursued. I never proselytized my patients with my opinions–but inevitably the wars always came home and entered my treatment room as a cause of mental suffering: Perhaps a son or a sister was a combatant or working for the military …Or a father or mother burdened with memories of war trauma… Or a veteran of one of the wars would come to alleviate the traumatic stress of having committed or witnessed acts of violence. Many suffered from “moral injury”–feeling remorse that they participated in a cause that had no justifiable purpose. Their children and grandchildren suffered as well through the ineffable transmission of trauma unto the second and third generation.

They continue to come to my office in ever increasing numbers.

Here’s a review I wrote of Dan Ellsberg’s new book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, published in Tikkun magazine.  The review’s title is “It’s Midnight in America”.

Read the review on Tikkun magazine here: https://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/daniel-ellsbergs-the-doomsday-machine.

There was a game that children in the southern Midwest played during the early days of the Cold War. It was called, “What Time is it Mr. Fox?”  It was a version of “tag” and went something like this.

The one hour interview with Dan Ellsberg will soon be available for viewing on YouTube once editing of the footage is complete. The photo below shows Bill Roller on the left and Dan Ellsberg on the right–immediately after the talk.  The event was part of the Hero Round Table sponsored by the Heroic Imagination Project.