Compartmentalization

Earlier today I was watching one of the C-Span channels, and an author was discussing one of his books...something I often find quite enjoyable.  He was David Pietrusza, a historian who has written a number of books on different topics in American history, and he was addressing a small audience at a New York library about his 2011 work, titled 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America.  Pietrusza spoke in a down-to-earth, unpedantic way that made me want to pick up a copy of his book...the fact that I love history (I majored in it) was another plus.  After he had delivered his talk, there was still time left over for questions.  One of them concerned passages from 1948 that quoted Truman as having said and written some things that could only be interpreted as being anti-Semitic and racist.  These remarks stood in stark contrast to Truman's actions while president, which included quickly and stalwartly supporting the establishment of the state of Israel while at the same time advancing civil rights for blacks, including mandating the integration of the armed forces. How could these apparently conflicting expressions from Truman be reconciled?  Pietrusza gave what I believe to be a profound answer: Truman was a complex individual, as are all of us to an extent, and as such tended to compartmentalize his notions about issues and people.  His sense of justice and equal rights for all conflicted with the more prejudicial notions he acquired from his youth and social relationships.  Instead of completely eliminating the bigotry, he compartmentalized it, separating it from the causes he championed as president.  It sounds irrational...and it is...but this compartmentalization is an important and very misunderstood part of human nature.  And we all practice it in one form or another...

I wouldn't want to finish this article on compartmentalization without discussing a quite different application of the term...but which also carries great historical significance.   When the Manhattan Project was undertaken during World War II, there was a great need to employ thousands of people to manufacture the elements necessary for the development of its ultimate aim: the atomic bomb.  But with the exception of those with the highest security clearance, none of those engaged in this endeavor were given any more information that that necessary for them to accomplish their special work within the project.  This compartmentalization of information helped greatly to protect the project's security against spying, and also created a way by which any leaks that did occur could be more easily traced back to their source.  Compartmentalization in this context is a dominant element as well in subversive activities, with organized crime and terrorist cells being prime examples...

So compartmentalization can be an effective tool in a social setting to protect the group from infiltration...but it is also an aspect of an individual's personality, whereby discredited notions are not excised from the psyche but rather separated into different areas from the more "enlightened" ones.  I wonder what, if any, connections there are between these two applications of the word...