We sat down with Smith to discuss his current work and to learn more about his perspective on wellness.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a book entitled Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization, which will be published by Harvard University Press, and another book on dehumanization that will be published by Oxford University Press. Both should be out in 2020.
Dr. Smith on Stress
What stresses you out?
A lot of things. Big stressors are the resurgence of authoritarian politics, racism, misogyny, global climate change, and environmental degradation. On a more personal level, growing older, lack of writing time, and overcommitment all stress me out.
How do you manage the stressors in your life?
Lifting heavy weights and doing the best I can to make the world a better place.
Dr. Smith on Resilience
How do you define resilience?
I understand resilience as the capacity to persist in the face of hardship and recover from the harm that hardship can produce. This being said, I think that it’s important not to idealize resilience. Persistence in the face of hardship can build strength, but it also can cause irreparable damage, and recovery may be partial. There are some wounds from which we never recover; we just learn to live with the damage that we have suffered and perhaps to use that damage in positive, life-affirming ways.
We all at one time or another have a life experience that challenges our resilience. Can you describe what you learned about your own resilience after such an experience?
I was badly bullied throughout my childhood and adolescence, and it took every bit of strength that I had to go to school and face this pain day after day. I have no doubt that this harmed me in very fundamental ways that I still carry with me as a man of 65. I learned from this that to survive is not the same as to survive unscathed. I also learned that I can use these experiences of pain and darkness in the service of the good. My work as a scholar is focused on the nature of human cruelty and dehumanization, and the residue of pain from these early experiences has been vital for helping me become a better scholar and a more compassionate human being.
