Psychic Numbing

Psychic numbing is a tendency for individuals or societies to withdraw attention from past experiences that were traumatic, or from future threats that are perceived to have massive consequences but low probability. It can operate as a response to a wide range of threats, including financial and economic collapse, the risk of nuclear weapon detonation, pandemics, and global warming, and researchers examining the phenomenon also point to a neuroscientific basis underlying the observable behavior. The concept applies at two levels: societies can exhibit a collective form of psychic numbing toward large-scale threats, while individuals show their own version of it, documented in rape survivors and in people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, where withdrawing attention from traumatic memories serves as a way of managing overwhelming distress.