Sandra L. Bloom > Quotes

“Diversity encourages multiple viewpoints that are so important for innovation, makes it more unlikely that groupthink will dominate the group, and makes the emergence of group genius more likely.”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care

“When leaders are optimistic, group members’ positive moods are increased and group performance improves. But when leaders display negative emotions, group members’ negativity and frustration increase, which decreases group performance [144].”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care

“Creative expression of the artistically elite is grossly overvalued and creative expression of the general population is grossly undervalued. This is dangerous. The part of our beings that has no voice, perhaps or other hemisphere, needs a vehicle for expression. Without such a vehicle, expression is likely to come through action that is often violent and destructive instead of creative.
Over the years, many questions have arisen about the connection between creativity and madness, the artist and the madman. Both the artist and the madman speak a tongue that has become foreign to the rest of us. The mad person is to his or her family what the artist is to the culture, containing what is hidden, secret, denied, and disassociated and trying with more or less desperation to reveal vital secrets to us all. The mad person—the person we would now call a victim of trauma—has always symbolically pointed out the discrepancies, inconsistencies, and lies in the family.”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies

“Our addiction to violence is perhaps, even more problematic than our other addictions. The place to start is recognizing it for what it is—an infectious disease. Violence begets violence and we minimize how important a contributor the all-pervasive social exposure to violence is in determining what kind of society we have. Our social norm, our tolerance for violence has become far too unbalanced and that change in norm does give permission to use violence as a way of solving problems, thus discouraging conflict resolution, impulse control, and tolerance. If we except violence at our sporting events and the encouragement of violence on talk radio, then we should not be surprised that children turn to violence to resolve their problems.”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies

“Bearing witness is a concept that is of vital importance particularly, right now, for men. The violence in our culture is perpetrated largely by men on women, children, the environment, and other men. Man still dominate in every culture. Men still run the world. Males in our culture are systematically conditioned for war, whether that war is to be on the battlefield, in the boardroom, or in the bedroom. This is carefully done by an insistence on emotional inhibition and encouragement of the brutalization of self and others that begins in early childhood. My male violence is supported, condoned, admired, and encouraged…. This is a male problem that only men can fix. Just as women assumed responsibility for their own consciousness raising in the 1970s, so man must take responsibility for their unique problems and work to alter the behavior of and social norms for boys. As long as we continue to Focus exclusively on the victims of violence while ignoring the pervasive male perpetration that creates those victims, there will be an on ending stream of victims, as the testimony of the century bears out. from -Creating Sanctuary”
― Sandra L Bloom