Jan 8, 2021
The Irrational Yankee
“World War II was a major shattering experience because I discovered the enormous role of the irrational in the life of most people…. The ratio between the irrational and the rational in America is very much in favour of the irrational.”
These are the words of Professor Martin Bergman, psychoanalyst in the US Army in 1943 - 45, in Part 2 of the documentary, The Century of the Self (The Engineering of Consent).
He worked in the psychiatric services with soldiers trying to be rehabilitated. Many were shell-shocked, broken men. Don’t be taken in by the advertisements, he says in his old age. Deep down inside, Americans are “sadder” and more “problematic” than they appear.
