Trauma & Survival Mechanisms

**CW: This episode features discussions of sexual assault and police brutality** In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad draws on her therapeutic expertise to discuss psychological mechanisms people unconsciously rely on when facing a reality that is too much to bear. These tools—dissociation, denial, and projection—can happen in both our personal and political lives. Fraad looks at personal traumas from clients as well as societal traumas, such as war and police brutality, to explore how commonly humans rely on dissociation, denial, and projection to not face hard truths. In order to heal, both personally and as a society, however, we must learn to look at and call out these injustices. These psychological mechanisms serve an important purpose for survival, but the realities still exist and continue to take a toll.