About Evaluation Bias | Clarissa's Blog

About Evaluation Bias | Clarissa's Blog: I come from the very, very beginning of Modernity, when it was just starting to send out its shoots. In my new memoir, I point out that my father’s generation was already traumatised by war loss, and that really our whole orientation was toward war and Christianity, in about that order. But we didn’t have any modern art or contemporary humor, or leftwing ideas, or philosophy or anthropology. Our culture was also resistant to psychology, with the attitude that we were too tough for it. And yet not too tough not to pass down war trauma from one generation to the next (I was third in line).

Given that this was and is my background, if people want to treat me like I am just overreacting, I take that as a challenge. In fact, I may seek out the comment that I am overreacting, in a certain mood, so that I can test the mettle of the modern person and see how well they react. I’ve had to absorb a lot of traumas and not react, so it is an interesting experiment for me when somebody rises up to challenge me with their implied suggestion that they are much tougher than I. I would severely doubt that. But if they imply it or assert it, then I get to test them and see whether what they say is true or not.