From the National Book Award winner a powerful and timely rumination on how we can draw on
historical examples of “survivor power” to understand the upheaval and death caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic—and collectively heal "Lifton shows us why we must confront reality in
order to save democracy." —Peter Balakian Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ozone Journal
In this moving and ultimately hopeful meditation on the psychological aftermath of catastrophe
award-winning psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton calls forth his life’s work to show us how to cope
with the lasting effects and legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. The result is a thought-provoking
examination of life in the face of COVID-19 from one of the most profound thinkers of our time.
When the people of Hiroshima experienced the unspeakable horror of the atomic bombing they
responded by creating an activist “city of peace.” Survivors of the Nazi death camps took the
lead in combating mass killing of any kind and converted their experience into art and
literature that demonstrated the resilience of the human spirit. Drawing on the remarkably
life-affirming responses of survivors of such atrocities Lifton “one of the world’s foremost
thinkers on why we humans do such awful things to each other” (Bill Moyers) shows readers how
we can carry on and live meaningful lives even in the face of the tragic and the absurd.
Surviving Our Catastrophes offers compelling examples of “survivor power” and makes clear that
we will not move forward by denying the true extent of the pandemic’s destruction. Instead we
must truly reckon with COVID-19’s effects on ourselves and society—and find individual and
collective forms of renewal.
