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The American Psyche has been devastated by tragedy and dissension for the past 15
years. Language that was once uncommon: terrorism, imminent, radicalization, surveillance,
climate change, and economic imbalance, is now deeply rooted in the minds of Americans.
Americans have endured terrorism in the forms of radical attacks, climate disasters, police
abuses, and economic recession. During these communal experiences, Americans have lost
family members, dear friends, their homes, their hopes, and their innocence. In the United States
the media plays a tremendous role in connecting Americans’ to these moments by functioning as
a large collective apparatus that distributes massive amounts of information to society. The
language and story that is propagated from media contributes to the synthesis of American self
and community perception. Within the last 15 years the language and narrative emanating from
American media has been relentlessly negative and has created an environment of
dehumanization. Americans are psychologically and emotionally withering within the walls of
negative language and narrative. In order for Americans to heal their psychological and
emotional condition, they must come to understand the immense power media has in creating
their psychological condition, they must learn how to think philosophically, and they must open
their minds’ to stories that are outside of their psychological and emotional walls.
Media is a multi dimensional medium that has an immeasurable ability to influence the
American psychological and emotional condition, by propagating language and story to the
entire United States. Writer and researcher Law Alsobrook, of Virginia Commonwealth
University Qatar, examines media and the contents of the information that is disseminated from
it. In Alsobrook’s research paper, Are We Our Fictions: The Narrative Boundaries of the Self,
Alsobrook analyzes and expands upon, evolutionary Biologist, Richard Dawkins’ meme theory.
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According to Dawkins, “memes” are “cultural units” of encoded information that assist human
beings in cultural evolution. Alsobrook asserts “memes” be understood as stories, and that
narrative is understood as a method for accessing the information within these stories.” The
narrative information Americans extract from media is profoundly destructive to their
psychological condition. Donald Trump divulged, in his presidential press announcement,
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending
you…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume are
good people.” This type of generalized memetic narrative dehumanizes immigrants but also
American citizens of similar descent. Trumps’ narrative creates an internal anxiety within
Americans’ about their fellow neighbors, and leaves Americans’ in a perpetual state of suspicion
and fear.
The scope of the media’s power extends to an ability to plant narrative and imagery,
which conditions the psyche. According to Thelma McCormack’s analysis from the American
Journal of Sociology, on German psychologist Hans J. Eysenck’s research titled, Sex, Violence,
and the Media, “Conditioning they assert, reaches the paleo cortex of the brain, the level below
the thinking part, the neocortex. Sex and aggression reside in the paleo cortex, it is therefore
inevitable that viewers’ regularly exposed to media violence are being conditioned […] even a
single exposure may imprint fantasies which are subsequently recalled through memory and act
as a conditioning agent.” The everyday bombardment of violent memetic narrative is explosively
manifesting in American society. Sherry Towers, physicist, statistician, and research Professor at
Arizona State University, has discovered evidence that substantiates, “killings that receive
national or international attention do indeed inspire similar events a significant amount of the
time.” “Although it is possible to turn off the “Television Set”, one cannot turn off the television
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environment.” (Cantor 994)
Since the memetic narrative media delivers cannot be uprooted from the American
psyche, they must collectively and individually invest in philosophy. This method of thinking is
not inherent to the brain, but learning philosophy can have a transformational effect on the
human mind. Michelle Sowey has experienced, first hand, the fruits philosophical thought bear,
and she has begun running philosophical work shops for young children. In theses workshops,
the children analyzed, “artificial intelligence, environmental ethics, interspecies communication
and authenticity in art. They’ve contemplated the existence of free will, the limits of knowledge,
the possibility of justice and countless other problems from the history of philosophical thought.”
The children in Sowey’s workshops were transformed to be more “open-minded, “skeptical”,
and “rational”. One of Sowey’s students encapsulates his new perception, “I’ve started to
actually solve arguments and problems with philosophy. And it works better than violence or
anything else.” Sowey asserts that by directing children to, “a path of philosophical enquiry early
in life, we could offer them irreplaceable gifts: an awareness of life’s moral, aesthetic and
political dimensions; the capacity to articulate thoughts clearly and evaluate them honestly; and
the confidence to exercise independent judgment and self-correction. What’s more, an early
introduction to philosophical dialogue would foster a greater respect for diversity and a deeper
empathy for the experiences of others, as well as a crucial understanding of how to use reason to
resolve disagreements.” The profound benefits of philosophical thought will provide Americans’
the mental structure to intellectually reason, analyze and reflect on how memetic narrative has
influenced their psychological and emotional condition.
The simplest and most powerful way to combat the discordant effects that memetic
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narrative has on the American psyche is for Americans to allow diverse story into their minds.
The memetic narrative radiating from media has created a psychological environment that is
conducive to linguistic and physical hate and violence. Americans view themselves and others
with ever growing suspicion and malaise. Story, in particular fiction, as Elif Shafak revealed,
during her TED talk lecture, opens one to a, “transcendental journey into other lives, other
possibilities.” Shafak is a self-described story teller and she continues to explain what might
happen if people enclose themselves within their own cultural walls, “our imagination might
shrink, our hearts might dwindle, and our humanness might wither if we stay for too long in our
cultural circles.” Shafak poetically expounds the importance of story and fiction, and science is
now demonstrating its deep therapeutic abilities.
In her article, Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy, Study Finds, Liz Bury
summarizes the profound findings of psychologists David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano.
Bury summarizes that Kidd and Castano, “have proved that reading literary fiction enhances the
ability to detect and understand other people’s emotions.” Annie Murphy Paul’s New York
Times article, Your Brain on Fiction, echoes Kidd’s and Castano’s findings’. Paul reasons
“novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the
opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings.” Story and fiction is then,
another form of memetic narrative, and this form, by means of entering the mind, allows
Americans’ to experience more diverse and intimate memetic narrative. Americans must open
their minds to the possibilities of different stories about people and the world.
There is no comprehensive study to suggest America has a psychological or emotional
problem that is related to the memetic narrative expressed from media. A percentage of the
American population may be dealing with psychological and emotional distress from the past 15
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tumultuous year; however, it is impossible to accurately know whether any distress originated
from the relationship of American, media, and negative memetic narrative. Media is an unbiased
apparatus, and the information that is delivered to Americans is served to inform them about
their society.
It is undeniable that, within the past 15 years, Americans have endured tremendous strife.
The media has proliferated a memetic narrative of story and imagery that is violent, hateful, and
divisive. Americans must come understand the intricate power of media. Philosophy offers
Americans’ the ability to analyze and understand how memetic narrative influences their
psychological and emotional condition. Diverse story from fiction gives Americans’ sensitivity
and wisdom. Elif Shafak illustrates how things of this world are destroyed, “if you want to
destroy something in this life, be it acne, a blemish, or the human soul, all you need to do is
surround it with thick walls. It will dry up inside.” When Americans surround the negative
memetic narrative in their minds’ with rich and multifarious walls of story, they can begin to
heal.
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Works Cited
Alsobrook, Law. “Are We Our Fictions?” The Narrative Boundaries of Self.” Technoetic
Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research. (2014): 337-346 Academic
Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Bury, Liz. “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy, Study Finds” Theguardian. 8 October.
2013. Web. 11 December, 2015
Cantor, Muriel G. American Journal of Sociology 85.4 (1980): 994. Web. 11 December. 2015
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. “Donlad Trump’s False Commnets Connecting Mexican Immigrants and
Crime”. Thewashingtonpost. 8 July. 2015. Web. 11 December. 2015.
McCormack, Thelma. American Journal of Sociology 85.4 (1980): 992–994. Web. 11 December.
2015.
Paul, Annie Murphy. “Your Brain on Fiction”. Thenewyorktimes. 17 March. 2012. Web. 11
December. 2015.
Shafak, Elif. “The Politics of Fiction” ted.com. TEDGlobal2010. July 2010. Web. 11 December.
2015.
Sowey, Michelle. “Teaching Philosophy to Children? It’s a Great Idea”. Theguardian. 20
November. 2013. Web. 11 December. 2015.
Towers, Sherry. “Q&A: Sherry Towers on the Contagion effect of Mass Shootings.
Asunow.asu.edu. 5 October. 2015. Web. 27 February. 2016.
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