The Signal

HOUSTON: Jan. 28, 2025

By UHCL Associate Professor of Communication Deb Menconi Clark who is a content expert regarding the social construction of reality by theorist Peter Bergman, as it relates to mediated issues.

Photo credit byline, Deb Menconi Clark

When one wakes up in the morning wondering, “What now?” This is an indication something is amiss.  Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom are all signs of anxiety per credible psychological and medical associations. Unfortunately, according to the National Institutes for Health (2022), most Americans are waking up and asking, “What now?”  

Is the climate crisis going to make new first-ever storms worse each season? Can I afford my bills this month? Can I meet my work or educational deadlines? Do I need to check on Hispanic friends whose families I know nothing about?  What’s up with the flu?  Can I afford my medical bills for my current or new issues?   Will this political chaos ever end?  Can I survive this?

Americans are spoon-fed daily divisive news with heaps of social media content (much is disinformation) which, over time, can erode one’s mental health. Additionally, fear-mongering rhetoric via opinion commentators, layers on and reinforces existing anxiety; while conspiracy theories are medically established symptoms of depression, especially for those who grab onto them as if they were the Holy Grail. The established theoretical explanation for social anxiety is via the social construction of reality which occurs via humans sharing information and interacting with each other to create a common sense of reality—real or imagined. 

Media also amplify and reinforce socially constructed reality because they are the centrally organizing storylines, or themes, that provide for social meaning or social constructs.  With Civil Rights being taken away from Americans, a first in U.S. history, the anxiety continues to layer on. Are Americans taking this mediated rhetoric seriously? Are students?  Yes, and yes!

“I know I’m worried,” says a professor from a prominent Texas state university who chose to remain anonymous. “We are not supposed to use the term ‘woke’ or refer to D-E-I (sic: diversity, equity, and inclusion) in our classes or on campus. Each year we watch lower education being stripped of educational content as important books are banned. Libraries are being replaced with detention centers. It’s unreal!” 

He has since moved out of state with his partner, leaving his hard-earned full professor position behind at a prestigious Texas state university, with his parting words to me, “I’m tired of fighting. Good luck, goodbye, and you’re welcome to join us when you’ve had enough.”

This is the current “Reality Tour” for all public educators in states who enacted anti-woke or anti-DEI agendas which affects faculty on a personal and professional level. Fact: Today, more than ever, fear of changes to societal expectations, the loss of more civil rights and the future state of the U.S. are real.

Professors are not the only ones affected by anxiety. During the COVID19 Pandemic, many students had to adapt to online classes without much notice to getting tested or vaccinated to getting sick. They watched the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt to stop the 2020 election from being validated, to two ongoing wars (Ukraine and Gaza), to watching divisive political stances about public health, and then were back into with masks.

Also, many credible academic studies point to the COVID19 pandemic and toxic politics, adding to a sense of social anxiety which can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

            “The time of widespread outbreaks of infectious diseases can lead to elevated stress and mental health problems among all persons affected, and those sub-groups of the population that are at an increased risk for mental health issues. One such vulnerable group constitutes university students,” according to a study in “Psychologcial Medicine” by the Cambridge University Press, Oct. 2, 2020.

Many universities and colleges, including University of Houston campuses, enacted help lines and asked faculty to be more empathetic or responsive to the needs of students. They were offered psychological services to deal with anxiety, loss (death), depression, or stress.  Additionally, with many restrictive higher education laws enacted in Texas, along with numerous book bans for K-12 state facilities and local public libraries, students are still existing in a precarious and contentious societal climate.

American culture wars are normal began being documented and defined as early as 1990 by sociologist James Davison Hunter and further elaborated in his 1991 book, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Twenty years later, in a 2016 commencement address at Rutgers University, then-President Barack Obama gave this explanation of the U.S. Culture Wars: “It depends on us, on the choices we make, particularly at certain inflection points in history; particularly when big changes are happening and everything seems up for grabs.”

Historically, the first critical inflection point for the U.S. was the Civil War, when victory ended slavery and broadened democratic freedoms for all Americans. The second critical inflection point was during the 1960s counter-culture movement and anti-Vietnam War era.  This war caused a huge rift within American society, raising doubts about America’s role in the world, its morality, and its priorities, along with a cynicism about government and other institutions by younger generations.

Accordingly, numerous contemporary historians and scholars are sounding the alarms that the U.S. is now at its third critical inflection point. The irony is that many of the civil rights and voting act laws that have been watered down or eliminated were actually passed during the 1960s and 1970s when the Vietnam War was being fought. Now, our current socio-economic-political and religious status issues have us in the midst of our current inflection point, via today’s socio-political wars.

The reality of social anxiety becoming a medically accepted diagnosis was, coincidently, during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. British psychiatrist Isaac Marks made the case that social phobia was different from behavioral phobias. The American Psychiatric Association accepted Marks’ research and officially included “social anxiety” in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, making this an official medical disorder.  Oddly, despite having accepted the social anxiety diagnosis, it took decades before Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was accepted as a reimbursable medical diagnosis with Veteran Affairs, who oversees veteran health benefits.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is typically characterized by symptoms such as intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, hyperarousal, nightmares, changes in memory and concentration, and challenged interpersonal relationships. Most if not all these symptoms come to light in Gerald McCarthy’s book, “Hitchhiking Home from Danang: A Memoir of Vietnam, PTSD and Reclamation,” and to some degree also represents the social psyche of many Americans today.

However, it is important to note the medical difference between social anxiety as already explained, and PTSD.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is diagnosed after an actual personal traumatic event, persistent stress, or injury affects one’s general wellbeing and adds genuine fear to their sense personal safety.   

A Potential “Academic” Solution: Hitchhiking Home from Danang: A Memoir of Vietnam, PTSD and Reclamation, by Gerald A. McCarthy

It is in this anxiety-riddled climate of political divisiveness and social unrest when reading the book, Hitchhiking Home from Danang: A Memoir of Vietnam, PTSD and Reclamation, by Gerald A. McCarthy becomes an enlightening read. It is a new memoir with a unique narrative about family issues and tough topics during and after the Vietnam War that directly relates (unintentionally per McCarthy) to today’s nationally anxiety-riddled nation.

“It took me a long time to write it,” McCarthy explains, “without giving in to writing about violence.”  He says that being amid two new wars and new fights for civil rights weighed extremely heavily on him.

McCarthy’s memoir is not just a read, but an experience. He suggests in his Introduction to his memoir that the reader listen to the music signified by each song-titled chapter while reading. It is common knowledge that music has a significant impact on humans; it activates an all-brain response; can evoke an emotional connection or memory; and can psychologically soothe or agitate the listener—it depends on the individual and the music. 

Additionally, McCarthy’s unique poetic medias res narrative enhances what one might assume to be a difficult book to get through. It is not. It reads and feels like Vietnam, or what one might assume. Think Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, where one might start in the middle, coast to the beginning and back to the middle, which is now the end—despite some retracing. It is a narrative tactic to illustrate memory loss, real and imagined.  For McCarthy, this includes his Vietnam experiences, lessons learned about racism, fragmented memories induced by childhood trauma, how he dealt with life during and after Vietnam to coming to terms with life as it was then and as it is now. 

When reading the book from start to finish, the reader is immersed in a personal literary journey in McCarthy’s world. This memoir is not a simple trip down memory-lane, but a slip, slide and stumble with several falls throughout the memoir.  The book can be read as written, or via a suggested list of chapters that are closer to a typical timeline.  I went with the chapters as listed, listening to the music, and found the narrative to be thoroughly engaging. I actually thought, I’m reading how a person with PTSD thinks! It felt oddly familiar.

The rise in racist hatred fueled by even more political divisiveness was a start for writing, McCarthy, previously a professor of English at St. Thomas Aquinas College, explains, “teaching Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five for many years made me realize that Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist who represented the absurdity of war, showed signs of having PTSD, and then I found the doorway to my own story.”

“When Consequence Forum published a section of the memoir,” he explains, “that made me realize I really had to finish it.

McCarthy is referring to the publication of Chapter 19, Four Days Gone, in which he writes about what happened to him when he “turned away” from the Marine Corps and “military madness” after his tour in Vietnam, to his then teenage son. “I try to explain to him that although I was listed as a deserter, in fact, if you turn yourself in, in uniform, they eventually drop the desertion charge. I try to tell him how it started.”

“My story begins in Vietnam—where I deplaned in 1966 as a naïve 18-year-old with no knowledge of the country, its culture, it is people or their traditions.  I survived physically, yet the invisible scars of the war have never left. I have learned how to live with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—and many people have helped me, sometimes without knowing it.”

McCarthy’s memoir is his life transcript one might share with a psychologist who is seeking help for PTSD. From his teen angst, family issues and child abuse, to his first encounter with a Black soldier (there were no Black people in the town he grew up in), his disillusionment with the military, entitlement-by-rank bullying, to the real horrors of war. The military’s approach to dealing with PTSD in the 60s and 70s was to treat enlisted or AWOL (those who were caught) soldiers as if they had a major psychiatric disorder.

He describes how they were forced to take drugs, such as lithium or other psychotropic drugs, to create young confused but silent zombies. Nobody, including doctors, nurses, or other patients, wanted to be reminded of or hear the confused flashbacks or screams at night. The numerous near-death experiences and seeing mutilated corpses to unspeakable acts of cruelty did take a toll.    The horrors of the Vietnam War are real. And, as Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, illustrates, the memories of the Vietnam War never really die. The war lives on via multiple mediated stories that, like social anxiety, are the reality some incredibly young teenagers cannot process, some never forget, or some are successfully able to manage with help—eventually. 

McCarthy’s narrative-style is the key to understanding his process in dealing with PTSD. From start to finish, his memoir contains fragmented passages, repeated memories, to eventually completed stories towards the end. Some of the stories have no ending. Even words can be too painful. It is left up to the reader’s imagination to literally connect-the-dots.  The process of reclaiming one’s past and sorting through what is real and what is perceived is part of the cognitive therapy approach to dealing with PTSD and real-life traumatic stories. This process is referred to as reclamation, and McCarthy relives his reclaimed memories through his memoir and explains how he survived Vietnam and his PTSD diagnosis.

The Vietnam War will historically live on as America’s second inflection point. How one moves on from our current inflection point, our culture wars, is an unfinished story. As it is, “What’s next?” will continue and social anxiety will build. Perhaps one can learn from McCarthy’s memoir about how to survive trauma and eventually, with time, climb out of that deep dark mental hole? 

Nearly four years ago, (Feb. 11, 2021), the Austin American-Statesman contributing columnist and journalist Bill McCann writes:

“My friend Vic thinks he has symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s retired military, but his PTSD symptoms are not from the trauma of war, he says. It’s trauma from enduring the chaotic presidency of Donald Trump… That’s not good for Republicans or our stressed-out nation.”

Nor is this kind of social anxiety good for students, staff, or faculty.  UHCL, like many universities, has a robust Counseling and Mental Health Services Center for students, staff, and faculty. Per their website, “University of Houston-Clear Lake Counseling and Mental Health Center offers free and confidential therapy to currently enrolled UHCL students. Currently, all services are securely provided both virtually through Zoom and in-person.” For more information https://www.uhcl.edu/cmhc/ or “if you have an urgent psychological concern and you need to speak with a mental health counselor immediately, please call 281-283-2580 and press two.”

Book Details:

Hitchhiking Home from Danang: A Memoir of Vietnam, PTSD and Reclamation, by Gerald A.

McCarthy. (2024). McFarland & Company, Inc, Publishers. Jefferson: NC. 237 pp.

ISBN: 9-781476-692845. Trade Paperback.

Author Brief Bio:

Gerald A. McCarthy, born in 1947, is a published poet, writer and was a professor of English at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York, from 1985 to 2019. He taught creative and expository writing, late modern literature, contemporary poetry, Black writers in America, among other topics. He also led the common-reader program while teaching at St. Thomas. He has received numerous awards for his work and has twice been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome.