Returning to the Pentagon: the use of mass desensitization following the September 11, 2001 attack

Following the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon many fears remained among survivors of the event. As chief of the mental health team assigned to work with the Office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, one of the authors (D.W.) had to address predominant unit concerns regarding how many individuals would be emotionally capable of returning to the building. This manuscript presents one of the specific interventions we used, mass desensitization, as a possible technique for reducing environmental anxieties following similarly traumatizing events.