title: The drive for power and conceptual inertia.
abstract: This presentation has considered only two of many psychological factors that contribute to the nuclear predicament. These are the power drive and conceptual inertia and how they encourage the propensity to violence. Psychotherapists can make an indirect but significant contribution toward human survival by calling attention particularly to the pernicious psychological effects of the misuse of language, either deliberate or resulting from conceptual inertia. We should seek to inform and educate the public, including political leaders, about this phenomenon. Those of us who have young children or grandchildren should seek to introduce into school and college curricula issues created by the splitting of the atom, since the young are best able to achieve the massive psychological changes necessary for coping with a new and unprecedented predicament.
authors: Johns Hopkins Medical School.
authors: J D
authors: JD
authors: Frank
mesh_terms: D003163:Competitive Behavior; D004328:Drive; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007802:Language; D007857:Leadership; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D012649:Self Concept; D012922:Social Change; D012930:Social Dominance; D014836:Volition