The Wounded Healer
can be characterized by (1) a historical dislocation, (2) a fragmented ideology, and (3) a search for immortality. It might be useful to examine Peter’s life in the light of these concepts. 1. Historical dislocation When Peter’s father asks him when he will take his final exam, and whether he has found a good girl to marry; and when his mother carefully inquires about confession and communion and his membership in a Catholic fraternity— they both suppose that Peter’s expectations for the future are essentially the same as theirs. But Peter thinks of himself more as one of the “last ones in the experiment of living” than as a pioneer working for a new future. Therefore, symbols used by his parents cannot possibly have the unifying and integrating power for him which they have for people with a prenuclear mentality. This experience of Peter’s we call “historical dislocation.” It is a “break in the sense of connection, which men have long felt with the vital and nourishing symbol of their cultural tradition; symbols revolving around family, idea-systems, religion, and the life-cycle in general” (Lifton, History and Human Survival, New York: Random House, 1970, p. 318). Why should a man marry and have children, study and build a career; why should he invent new techniques, build new institutions, and develop new ideas—when he doubts if there will be a tomorrow which can guarantee the value of human effort? Crucial here for nuclear man is the lack of a sense of continuity, which is so vital for a creative life. He finds himself part of a nonhistory in which only the sharp 10