This week’s conversation recorded in 2011 is both timely and untimely. Timely – as we exit from Afghanistan – because in her book When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home, Paula Caplan asks why it’s a mental illness to be devastated by war and urges us to connect with veterans and listen to their stories, one-on-one. And untimely, because Paula died of cancer July 21st. She was both one of the warmest, most generous people I’ve known, and at the same time, a consistently fierce and passionate advocate for justice. Three words I believe often motivated Paula: “It’s not fair.” And those three words have seldom felt more true.

 Aired 07/31/11

PAULA CAPLAN, a clinical and research psychologist, is currently Affiliate at the DuBois Institute and Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, both at Harvard University. She has been a Lecturer at Harvard and a Professor of Applied Psychology and Head of the Centre for Women's Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She is the author of 11 books, including Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship; You're Smarter Than They Make You Feel; They Say You're Crazy; and her latest, When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans. Paula is also a playwright.

http://www.paulajcaplan.net/

http://whenjohnnyandjanecomemarching.weebly.com/