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Déjà Vu!
Author(s) -
Schweitzer Mary
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 0193-5615
DOI - 10.1525/ahu.1991.16.4.137
Subject(s) - stupidity , déjà vu , surprise , psychology , fragility , panic , resilience (materials science) , amnesia , task (project management) , history , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychoanalysis , developmental psychology , economics , anxiety , chemistry , psychiatry , physics , management , thermodynamics
This is a story of resilience and persistence. In 1989–90, my son accompanied me for the second time on a fieldwork trip in Peru. When he “hit the wall” my initial response was surprise and panic. But then I recognized a pattern from the previous visit, of revealing growing tension, crises, and crises successfully met. Why are we always willing to come back for more? Self‐searching questions of sadism, self‐destruction, stupidity, and amnesia may be important. It may come down simply to a decision of committing ourselves to the task at hand. Ultimately, I think it is a matter of our willingness to risk our fragility for the possibility of learning more deeply what it means to be human.