[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” admin_label=”Section” _builder_version=”4.9.0″ _module_preset=”default” saved_tabs=”all”][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”Playing Through the Pain” subhead=”The Impact of Dark Knowledge and Secrets on Security and Intelligence Professionals” text_orientation=”center” _builder_version=”4.9.4″ _module_preset=”default” subhead_font_size=”22px”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IowHTVxHpAs” image_src=”\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/IowHTVxHpAs\/hqdefault.jpg” admin_label=”YouTube Video” _builder_version=”4.9.4″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_video][et_pb_text admin_label=”Description” _builder_version=”4.9.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]<\/p>\n
Dismissing or laughing off concerns about what it does to a person to know critical secrets does not lessen the impact on life, work, and relationships of building a different map of reality than \u201cnormal people\u201d use. One has to calibrate narratives to what another believes. One has to live defensively, warily. This causes at the least cognitive dissonance which some manage by denial. But refusing to feel the pain does not make it go away. It just intensifies the consequences when they erupt.<\/p>\n
Philip K. Dick said, reality is that which, when you no longer believe in it, does not go away. When cognitive dissonance evolves into symptoms of traumatic stress, one ignores those symptoms at one\u2019s peril. But the very constraints of one\u2019s work often make it impossible to speak aloud about those symptoms, because that might threaten one\u2019s clearances, work, and career. And whistle blower protection is often non-existent.<\/p>\n
The real cost of security work and professional intelligence goes beyond dollars. It is measured in family life, relationships, and mental and physical well-being. The divorce rate is as high among intelligence professionals as it is among medical professionals, for good reason \u2013 how can relationships be based on openness and trust when one\u2019s primary commitments make truth-telling and disclosure impossible?<\/p>\n
One CIA veteran wrote: \u201cI was for a while an observer to the Personnel Management working group in the DO. I noted they\/we were obscenely proud of having the highest rates of alcoholism, adultery, divorce, and suicide in the US Government. I personally have 23 professional suicides in my mental logbook, the first was an instructor that blew his brains out with a shotgun when I was in training. The latest have tended to be senior figures who could not live with what they knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bottom line is, trauma and secondary trauma have identifiable symptoms and they are everywhere in the \u201cindustry.\u201d The \u201chyper-real\u201d space which the national security state creates by its very nature extends to everyone too, now, but it\u2019s more intense for professionals. Living as \u201csocial engineers,\u201d always trying to understand the other\u2019s POV so one can manipulate and exploit it, erodes the core self. The existential challenge constitutes an assault on authenticity and integrity. Sometimes sanity is at stake, too, and sometimes, life itself.<\/p>\n
We might as well begin our discussion with reality. Choosing unreality instead means we have to spend energy and time on a trek from unreality to reality simply to begin. This talk is about reality \u2013 the real facts of the matter and strategies needed for effective life-serving responses, a way to manage the paradoxical imperatives and identity-threatening pressures of our lives and work.<\/p>\n
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Dismissing or laughing off concerns about what it does to a person to know critical secrets does not lessen the impact on life, work, and relationships of building a different map of reality than \u201cnormal people\u201d use. One has to calibrate narratives to what another believes. One has to live defensively, warily. This causes at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
\"The Road to Resilience: Strategies for Playing Through the Pain\" by Richard Thieme at Def Con 26 (August 11 2018) is now available on you tube. 23rd year at Def Con.\u00a0 Connecting with the heart of a left-brain crowd.<\/p>
https:\/\/youtu.be\/TA8GksT707o<\/a><\/p> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TA8GksT707o&t=364s<\/a><\/p>