Coping with a Collective Trauma: Psychological Reactions to 9/11 across the United States

Abstract

September 11, 2001, is a date firmly imprinted in the collective memories of residents of the United States. On that day, every person in the country, as well as Americans traveling and living around the world, experienced a tragedy unprecedented in its scope and impact on both individual lives and the national psyche. Simultaneous terrorist attacks destroyed lives, brought down buildings, and shook the foundation of many core values and beliefs that define this country. An estimate of well over 100,000 people witnessed the terrorist attacks directly,1 while countless others watched or listened to television, the Internet, or other real-time media as these events unfolded. Then, in the weeks that followed, a myriad of both new and recurring haunting and graphic images, predictions of additional attacks, and newly-experienced sights such as armed police and soldiers in communities, reminded residents time and again of that day.