Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton has spent much of his life studying why people do awful things to each other. And it's an entry-and-exit study, taking in why things get awful, and how people survive and recover when the worst is over.
At age 97, there's been a lot of awful in Lifton's lifetime, and it obviously continues today. He comes at the issue again in a recent book, Surviving Our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The author shares his observations with us in an extended interview.