The author's college lost sixty-eight alumni in the tragedy of 9/11, and the many courses the author has taught on terrorism and related topics since have attracted dozens of survivors and family members. A practicing psychoanalyst in Manhattan, the author has also accepted into his care many seared by the disaster. Compelled to investigate 9/11's unique character further, he launched a study into the conscious and unconscious meaning of the event, both for those who were physically close to the attack and for those who witnessed it beyond the immediate space of Ground Zero. Based on the testi ... More

The author's college lost sixty-eight alumni in the tragedy of 9/11, and the many courses the author has taught on terrorism and related topics since have attracted dozens of survivors and family members. A practicing psychoanalyst in Manhattan, the author has also accepted into his care many seared by the disaster. Compelled to investigate 9/11's unique character further, he launched a study into the conscious and unconscious meaning of the event, both for those who were physically close to the attack and for those who witnessed it beyond the immediate space of Ground Zero. Based on the testimony of survivors, bystanders, spectators, and victim's friends and families, the book explores the conscious and unconscious meaning of 9/11 and its relationship to historical disaster, apocalyptic experience, unnatural death, and the psychological endurance of trauma. It interprets and contextualizes the memories of witnesses and compares their encounter with 9/11 to the devastation of Hiroshima, Auschwitz, Katrina, and other events Kai Erikson has called a “new species of trouble” in the world. Organized around “zones of sadness” in New York City, the book evokes the multiple places in which the respondents confronted 9/11 while remaining sensitive to the personal, social, and cultural differences of these experiences. Most important, it distinguishes between 9/11 as an apocalyptic event, and 9/11 as an apocalyptic experience, which is crucial to understanding the act's affect on American life and a still-evolving culture of fear in the world.