The techniques of psychotherapy, widely practiced and accepted as a means of curing psychological disorders, are also methods of controlling people. They can be used systematically to influence attitudes and behavior. Systematic desensitization is a method used to dissolve anxiety so that the patient (public) is no longer troubled by a specific fear, a fear of violence for example. A progressively more graphic depiction of violence in the movies and on television desensitizes the viewer, especially young people, to real-life violence. . . .
Thus, The Day After and Special Bulletin could leave many viewers so numbed by a sense of hopelessness and helplessness that they could succumb to deep apathy with regard to anything that has anything to do with the prospect of nuclear confrontation.
