We are plagued during this current global pandemic by a hesitancy to take the required vaccines. This is a serious problem that severely impacts the safety of all of us and the ultimate attainment of the much required herd immunity. The fact that very effective vaccines exist makes the issue of hesitancy frustrating to many and intolerable to some. As a clinical psychologist and group dynamics specialist, I have been pondering the potential value structured, interactive group discussions can play in shifting vaccine hesitant individuals along the readiness for change continuum.
The idea of group based interactions helping members to get unstuck from rigid perspectives is not one I am the first to consider. In fact there are countless studies that highlight this phenomenon. One study that comes to mind was conducted by Kurt Lewis, founder of Social Psychology. Lewis and his team were successfully able to use such a structured group discussion format to convince highly hesitant people to introduce kidney meats into their food purchase and preparation, so that American soldiers fighting during World War II could be provided the more desirable cuts of meat they so desperately needed.
I have been working and teaching group psychology for many years and as a sprite young 84 year old, I have never been more about the need to inject group based processing into discussions around the benefits of getting vaccinated for Covid. As I wind down my professional endeavors, I find myself with a bit more band width to take on a new project (in between my yoga classes, learning to play the drums and a few other “extra curricular” activities), I would love to find a way to use my expertise in individual psychological functioning and group dynamics to help the world move past this pandemic by becoming more vaccinated on the whole. Until we reach a point where the majority of people on this planet are vaccinated, we will never be able to outrun this chronically mutating and highly resilient Covid virus. I am in particular interested in running discussion groups that allow for access to information via this interactive and open format to the most under-privileged members of our society whose many healthcare and other needs have been severely neglected throughout time.
As we all know, it is extremely difficult to shift perspectives when we get locked into an emotionally activated, rigid mode of information processing. When feeling threatened and triggered it is natural to cling all the tighter to beliefs about how the world “should” and “must” operate. Group processing of complex information allows for the opening up of social and self boundaries to threatening information that is consciously and unconsciously being strongly defended against. Groups, expertly and sensitively led provide a very natural setting for such self boundary opening and expansion of beliefs and world views.
My plan and New Year’s resolution is to get creative and maybe enlist the support and assistance of my daughter, Dr Debra Kissen and her Light On Anxiety team to find away to use the power of groups to melt away vaccine hesitancy. TBD how this will all unfold but I do know I am determined to use my professional training and passion for creating change on the individual and group level to make 2022 the year we humans kick some Covid virus butt!
(Posted on behalf of my fabulous father, Dr Morton Kissen)
