“Albert, when I came to you with those calculations we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world. I believe we did.”
~ J. Robert Oppenheimer (Father of the Atomic Bomb)
This quote at the end of Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer triggered the Behavioral scientist in me who grabs every chance to explain the varying effects of trauma on a person’s life. Let me try this with the analogy of an explosion. Let’s consider that a person’s brain is a city and thoughts are the people residing there. One day, out of nowhere, a traumatic event happens in the person’s life — a bomb has been dropped in the city. What happens to the city in this case? People are affected, some die, some get injured, and some have lost their loved ones. It’s a mess. Depending on the city’s infrastructure, economy, the kind of bomb, etc the degree of impact varies. Sometimes it affects generations and the city never completely recovers. We add laws, implement security measures, become extra vigilant, try to cope, and eventually learn to live with the remnants of the event — the radiation, the broken walls of beautiful monuments, and the images captured. We are reminded every year.
Trauma in a person’s life is no different. A city with a great economy, resources, and support will recover faster. The time to recover varies from person to person and a lot of factors come into play. A compatible therapist within your reach, money to afford expensive treatment, a long leave from a job or college if needed, a support system of parents, friends, relatives, etc. — All of these require ‘privilege’. And yet healing is not easy!
Knowing that your actions can be traumatic to somebody puts you in the shoes of Oppenheimer. When I say actions, I mean the obvious crimes. Those violent crimes that you choose to do start a chain reaction of the impact on the victim’s life. It makes you the destroyer of the victim’s world.
Design by: @wombo.ai
(https://dream.ai/create)
Prompt: Oppenheimer through the lens of a Trauma Survivor
Written by me :-)
#oppenheimer #christophernolan #cilianmurphy #alberteinstein #trauma #traumahealing #traumarecovery #ptsd #thoughts #atomicbomb #explosion #mentalhealth
