ABSTRACT
The American psyche is shaped by its orientation to the frontier. With the “discovery” of the New World, expansion through the Great Plains, and push to the Pacific Ocean came a psychological propensity for relentless horizontal movement, most conspicuously displayed in the spiritual quest to further the bounds of colonial settlement, also known as Manifest Destiny. Whereas geopolitical expansion found its limits along the shores of California, psycho-cultural frontierism lives on in a culture built on possibility, opportunity, and innovation. This extraversion has come with impoverished introversion and profound psycho-cultural costs. Perhaps this is why America always looks to the horizon, is absorbed in the relentless fabrication of new things, and has trouble absorbing the tragedies of the past: Genocide, slavery, civil war. This essay examines attitudinal and behavioral patterns related to frontierism, its essential nature, and what it leaves in its wake. The turn from the past and lack of self-reflection are part of the national character, and much of the North American shadow remains intractable precisely because it threatens this character. It is thus not enough to reveal a dark history; the shadow-making apparatus of the frontier mindset must also be understood and mitigated.
