8 self-improvement Lessons for a better life

An Opportunity for
Media Professionals

Alert Your Audience

By Peter K. Gerlach, MSW
Member NSRC Experts Council

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The Web address of this page is http://sfhelp.org/site/media.htm

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        This article proposes that modern media professionals are unwittingly misinforming the public about a scourge that affects their audiences - the unrecognized [wounds + unawareness] cycle that passes down the generation s and weakens our society. The evidence of this toxic cycle is literally everywhere - yet like the folktale The Emperor's New Clothes, no one is willing to admit it.  

        To evaluate this premise, please study these before continuing:

  • the introduction to this nonprofit, educational Web site, and the premises underlying it;

  • a summary of six pandemic psychological wounds (do you have any?);

  • what it means to be a "Grown Wounded Child" (are you one?);

  • this UCLA research summary;

  • these quizzes on fundamental social knowledge (can you "pass" them?);

  • an overview of the [wounds + unawareness] cycle, and...

  • this example of the cycle affecting a real family

What's the Problem?

        I began studying stepfamily dynamics professionally in 1979. That has led me to study "dysfunctional" (low-nurturance) families, and to discover the lethal [wounds + unawareness] cycle that seems to promote most major personal and social problems. I have never seen a lay or clinical proposal of this cycle and its epidemic effects.

        In my professional experience, few authors, journalists, reporters, and radio, TV, and Website editors, producers, funders, and executives have any awareness of how this cycle propagates and burdens most families and organizations in our culture.

         A toxic result of this unawareness is that media programs and articles in most (all?) genres unintentionally promote public ignorance and denial of the cycle and its effects. For a sampling, scan these recent examples from widely read Yahoo (Internet) News and other sources.

:         If you and your media organization are dedicated to bringing your audience useful, factual realities that will positively impact their families and our societies, I urge you to:

  • invest time in studying the first three lessons in this course - with your own family in mind;

  • consider these options for alerting other people to the effects of the [wounds + unawareness] cycle and how to break it, and...

  • seek qualified professional opinions (e.g. veteran sociologists, psychologists, and family-life educators) on this cycle concept. If you do, be prepared for skepticism and cynicism, because the concept challenges most widely-held ideas about the roots of our legion of social problems.

A major component of the cycle is average couples being allowed to conceive and raise kids before they're competent to do so. child

        If this cycle-concept is true - as I believe it to be after 32 years' full-time independent research - it's human impact is as profound as global warming. Few people will want to endorse it because of the implication that many (most?) American parents are unqualified to conceive and raise wholistically-healthy kids. We ignore this at our own peril.

        This unique non-profit, non-denominational Web site is dedicated to explaining the [wounds + un-awareness] cycle, and offering an effective way to break it. I'm glad to talk with you about any of this if you wish.

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Updated  December 03, 2011