Why We Snap
Even the world’s greatest mental-health experts can’t predict what will cause a psychological snap. A bad performance review? Difficult clients and customers? Not having the images show in the left-hand bar of your web page?
The slang term “snap,” as used in the sense herein, derives from a branch being bent and strained until the wood — the fiber that holds it together — can’t hold anymore. Apparently that’s what happened this past week inside the mind of Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant turned news chum.
For the Why We Snap feature posted on MSN.com, I spoke about freak-outs and faux folk heroes with Dr. Philip Muskin, MD, professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, who is a specialist in workplace stress. He chilled me out.