OMNI
PTSD NEWSLETTER #4, June 3, 2013.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace.
(#1 Jan. 12, 2012; #2, Sept. 10, 2012; #3 March 11, 2013).
My newsletters
on individual US wars contain additional writings or films about PTSD.
“Estimated
percentage change since 2007 in the number of U.S. U.S.
What’s at Stake: During WWI we learned about shell shock. Concussion seemed to be the problem. During WWII great advances were made in
saving lives--front-line surgery, rapid response to physical traumas. Sometime the Army began to concede and the
public began to discuss the emotional traumas caused by wars. Gradually the condition was named “PTSD,” and
that history is available in pieces. I
see this as a great advance for the peace movement. The harms of wars are not only physical—smashed
cities and slaughtered species (though we have so far paid attention only to
humans)—but are also psychological and lasting and lethal. The latest development in understanding and
for peace is called “moral injury.” I
first heard the term from Jacob George, who suffered from his three combat
assignments more severely than most of us realized. Now the first books are being published
about what is an epidemic, because US wars endure so long as to be virtually
ceaseless and the mentally wounded countless.
One book on moral injury stands out as particularly creative for peace--Robert
Emmet Meagher’s Killing from the Inside
Out—for it presents a powerful argument against the ancient doctrine of “Just
War.” I believe pessimism (globally species
fare worse than better) is the truthful perspective, but better there be, and
the soldiers and their families, scholars and creative writers, and medical
workers who have widened and deepened our understanding of the harms of wars to
the combatants themselves have given us a new way to resist wars.
Contents #4
Earlier Wars
Fiona Reid. Broken Men –
Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain, 1914-1930.
PTSD
Soldiers Murdering Back Home
IVAW, Another
Shooting at Ft. Hood , PTSD Cited
Suicide
Richard
Baker: Suicide
Soldier Facing
9th Deployment Kills Himself
Project
Recovery at Fort Hood
Diversity of Symptoms and Treatments
John Parrish,
M.D., Vietnam War Doctor’s PTSD
Dr. Shay,
Diagnosing and Treating PTSD with Literature
Hoge, The Transition from Combat to Home
Finley, Understanding PTSD among Veterans of Iraq
and Afghanistan
Moore and Penk, Treating PTSD in Military Personnel
Combat
Journalists Too Experience PTSD
Films
Poster Girl about Robynn Murray
Rev. Pat
McSweeney on Ms. Murray in The Servant
Song
Heather
Courtney: Where Soldiers Come From, Soldiers from Youth to PTSD
Global PTSD Films: Iran
Marriage of the Blessed
Marriage of the Blessed
Moral Injury
Nancy Sherman, Afterwar
Edward Tick, Warrior’s Return
Edward Tick, War and the Soul (audio)
Robert Emmet Meagher,
Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury
and Just War.,
Rev. by Laurence Vance
Rev. by Laurence Vance
We can assume that what has been
experienced in war, is being experienced at this moment, and will be in the
future are much more numerous and complicated than these exemplary writings and
films reveal.
Nos. 1-3
EARLIER WARS
Fiona Reid.
Broken Men – Shell Shock, Treatment and
Recovery in Britain, 1914-1930.
Reviewer: Professor Jason Crouthamel
Grand Valley State University
With a few
exceptions, the history of shell shock in Britain has focused primarily on
doctors’ and patients’ responses to mental trauma during wartime.(1) In particular,
scholars of psychological trauma have investigated doctors’ dilemmas in
diagnosing shell shock, wartime debates over restoring individual health versus
military needs, and the ‘crisis of masculinity’ this wound represented in
European culture.(2) The history of mental
illness is, however, still a developing field, and one of the areas that begs
more research is the experience of traumatized men after 1918, in particular
their struggle to restore themselves in work and family life.(3) As the focus shifts
towards the postwar period, the agency of ‘hysterical men’ becomes apparent as
we find evidence of their struggle to gain respect and assert authority over
their diagnosis and the memory of the war. Fiona Reid makes an important
contribution to the scholarship on shell shock. She persuasively argues that by
studying the shell-shocked soldier in the post-war world, we can gain new
perspectives on how the memory of the war was constructed, and changing
perceptions the war’s most symbolic victims. Reid argues that while
shell-shocked men are largely responsible for contemporary British culture’s empathy
for trauma victims, a reaction against a ‘stiff upper lip’ image of British
manhood, and a collective memory of the Great War as the epitome of catastrophe
and futility, shell-shocked men themselves had a very different set of goals
about their image and legacy. Today’s images of shell-shocked British soldiers
as tragic, wasted victims of a hopeless war obscures the more complex realities
faced by actual men who were eager to salvage their sense of masculinity and
restore their sense of honor as legitimate war victims in the eyes of the
nation. Reid’s book focuses on the efforts of institutions responsible for the
care of these men, in particular the ESWS (Ex-services Welfare Society), as
well of the voices of shell-shocked men themselves to recover the attitudes of
British civilians and veterans toward mentally ill victims of war. The trenches
and military hospitals were not the end of the story for shell-shocked men,
Reid argues, but the first part of a long ordeal for disabled men as they
sought respect and self-determination in the world of work, family and
political and economic restitution.
Reid’s book is organized thematically, with chapters that focus on
the experiences of these men through the landscape of the trenches, asylums,
welfare offices and life as civilians. Reid begins by providing background on
the battlefield experience of shell shock to highlight the diversity of
symptoms and problems raised by psychological wounds. While post-war veterans’
organizations would successfully create a special, empathetic place in public
memory for shell-shocked men, during the war men received inadequate and often
dismissive treatment from skeptical doctors who were not equipped or trained to
cope with the enormous influx of traumatized soldiers. Not all military
doctors, however, scorned these men who broke down when faced with their
masculine roles as the nation’s warriors. Viewpoints among doctors and the
public varied as pre-existing attitudes towards ‘weak nerves’ as a symptom of
unmanly disposition competed with growing disillusionment with the military
high command and traditional values. Sympathy for shell-shocked men, coupled
with growing criticism of callous military doctors, led to civilian campaigns
to raise money for special war neurosis hospitals. These campaigns were partly
successful and some positive press reports helped generate support for mentally
ill veterans, but widespread perceptions linking shell shock and ‘madness,’ and
persistent skepticism about a breakdown of masculinity, continued to hang over
these men. One of the first attempts at public support was the 1915 War
Pensions Bill, which tried to free men of these stigmas with flexible
categories, but diagnostic and linguistic confusion over the meaning of ‘shell
shock’ frustrated war victims and their families as they sought economic
security and respect. Medical and military leaders tried to project an image of
control to downplay these problems, which actually fueled growing sympathy for
traumatized men as unjust victims of the establishment.
In her analysis of how military doctors
approached shell-shocked men, Reid rightly stresses that historians must keep
in mind the context in which these doctors encountered this elusive wound. On
one hand, socially conservative doctors were skeptical that ‘shell shock’ was
really just a form of malingering by weak-willed men, but doctors also saw
themselves as vanguards of social progress who advocated humane healing and
were caught between the interests of the military – namely to send men to the
front – and the interests of medicine. The hard pressed RAMC (Royal Army
Medical Corps) had to take in an increasing number of civilian doctors who
believed that the interests of army discipline resulted in the neglect of
ordinary soldiers’ health. However, most RAMC doctors, regardless of their
perceptions of shell shock as a legitimate or faked injury, were hesitant to
engage fully with the problems posed by this wound. Most were untrained in
psychology, a field still widely disdained, and they labelled the complex,
myriad symptoms of shell shock as another form of shirking. At the same time,
these soldiers who lost their self-control and displayed tics, tremors and
other visible forms of trauma despite their invisible wounds drew compassion
from some doctors and the public. This empathy for men who appeared to lose
their manhood would become the basis for the post-war constructions of shell
shock as a ‘special’ wound. Even as doctors and the military mismanaged shell
shock, the kernel of compassion for men ‘whose minds the Dead have ravished,’
as Wilfred Owen famously observed, set the scene for post-1918 memory of the
war. MORE http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/997
SOLDIERS
MURDERING BACK HOME
FORT HOOD
    |
|
Further
Contribute to Our Movement
Dear Dick,
Last night, President Obama stated that he is
"heartbroken" about the shooting on Fort Hood Army base in
The
When we
first went to
Lopez
was already being treated for common symptoms of PTSD - anxiety, depression,
and insomnia - and was being evaluated for PTSD. Even after his death, the
leadership at
The
We
collected testimony from 31 soldiers during our time at
As long
as soldiers continue to be punished for seeking care, tragedies will continue
to occur.
We must demand the right to heal. Please join us by making a financial contribution today.
In
Solidarity,
Joyce,
Matt, Maggie, and Julia
IVAW Staff
P.S. Our work
at
|
|
Iraq Veterans Against the War is a
501(c)(3) charity,
and welcomes your tax deductible contributions  |
|
|
SUICIDE
RICHARD BAKER on
SUICIDE
“Suicide by
Appointment.” In These Times (April 2013).
“The Current practice is to treat the injury, not prevent it. Preventing PTSD would be simple: Don’t send
people to war. Treating the injury is
more difficult, and currently, the VA’s efforts are a failure.” [Did he intend to over-generalize; did he
mean to say the VA’s efforts to treat suicide have failed? Baker apparently has written a novel,
entitled Incoming, about soldier
suicide, but I was unable to find it in Google.
--Dick]
Facing 9th Deployment, Soldier Commits Suicide - Vanguard News ...
www.vanguardnewsnetwork.com/.../facing-9th-deployment-soldier-c...
Aug 16, 2011
– 13 Responses to “Facing 9th Deployment, Soldier Commits Suicide”. bjt Says: 16 August,
2011 at 3:37 pm. Why do these white Humans keep ...
A series of articles and
multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan
AUDIO
INTERVIEW
NEWS FROM FORT HOOD “OPERATION RECOVERY” TEAM
James :
"We are sitting on the porch at 11PM and
a thunderstorm has just broken through the desert's heat. 'It's a little crazy
what we are doing here,' Sergio reflects and then breaks into his loud
boisterous laugh that is drowned out by the sounds of the first beating
raindrops in over a month..." [Read more of this blog post.]
Sergio is part of the five member Operation
Recovery Team who has been deployed for the past five weeks at Fort Hood,
reaching out to service members and veterans about their right to heal.
What we are doing is not easy.
Killeen, Texas, home to Fort Hood is a
lonely, desolate, and dry place, dominated by the military base.
We are a team of just five, former soldiers
talking to current soldiers about war trauma -- a taboo subject -- on the
largest U.S. military installation, home to approximately 50,000 troops and
their families.
Sergio and Malachi of Opertion Recovery
deployment team
What we are learning
After five weeks of talking to soldiers, we
are learning just how widespread the war trauma at Fort Hood is.
Everyone has a story of someone they know who
has attempted suicide.
Many soldiers are on psychotropic medications
to cope with the depression, stress, anxiety, and insomnia that is rampant at
Fort Hood.
You can read more about conditions at Fort
Hood in our latest blog post.
As expected, soldiers also are reporting that
commanders are spreading rumors about Operation Recovery, that we can't be
trusted. Soldiers are being threatened
and intimidated by their commanders for talking to us. That is just how desperate they are to keep a
lid on things.
But we are here to pry that lid open.
What's next
Throughout July, we will continue outreach
and home visits with the hope of deepening our relationships with these service
members. People are like walking silos
down here, going through their own emotional pain - alone. Our next step is to connect those we've been
talking to with each other, to start building a new community of shared
experience and the desire to heal from war.
But in order to get to that point, we must
continue the outreach, the one-on-one conversations, and the home visits that
are the bread and butter of our organizing efforts here.
Your financial support will make all the
difference in our work.
Make a donation today.
In Solidarity,
The Fort Hood Operation Recovery Team
Aaron, Kyle, Malachi, Scott, and Sergio
Iraq Veterans Against the War is a 501(c)(3)
charity,
and welcomes your tax deductible
contributions
righttoheal.org/operation-recovery-fort-hood-soldiers-and-veterans-testif...
1.
May 26, 2014 - Operation Recovery: Fort Hood Soldiers and
Veterans Testify on the ... The Operation Recovery team has created a website to ensure easy ...
PTSD
AUTOPSY OF WAR: A
Personal History
John
A. Parrish, M.D. Thomas Dunne Books, Macmillan, 2012. http://us.macmillan.com/autopsyofwar/johnaparrish
On the outside,
John Parrish is a highly successful doctor, having risen to the top of his
field as department head at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General
Hospital. Inside, however, he was so
tortured by the memories of his tour of duty as a marine battlefield doctor in
Vietnam that he was unable to live a normal life. The author delivers an unflinching narrative
chronicling his four-decade battle with the unseen enemy in his own mind as he
struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Parrish
examines his Southern Baptist childhood and the profound influence of his
father, a fire and brimstone preacher turned Navy chaplain, while offering a
candid assessment of the “God and Country” ethos that leads young men to rush
wide-eyed into war. He describes the unimaginable
carnage and acts of cruelty he witnessed in Vietnam, experiences that
shattered his world view leaving him to retreat from his family upon his return
stateside. Living virtually homeless at times, he visited veteran shelters and
relived the horrors of war in a series of harrowing flashbacks as he dealt with
suicidal thoughts. The author writes honestly and probingly of his episodes of
infidelity and battles with sex addiction. Readers follow his steady journey
toward recovery and his professional contributions in the field of medicine and
technology, as well as a joint program with the Boston Red Sox and
Massachusetts General Hospital to aid returning veterans. Perhaps most
poignantly, Parrish speaks of his quest to discover the identity of one
particular soldier in Vietnam he could not save—and whose memory has haunted
him ever since.
Autopsy of War is a soul searching memoir that is both
an intensely personal narrative and a universally relevant trip through the
world of war and recovery.
CONNECT WITH
THE AUTHOR John A. Parrish, M.D.
RELATED LINKS http://us.macmillan.com/autopsyofwar/johnaparrish
Dr.
Jonathan Shay on Returning Veterans and Combat Trauma
By DEBORAH
SONTAG and AMY O'LEARY
Published:
January 13, 2008
Dr. Jonathan
Shay is a psychiatrist who specializes in treating the psychic wounds of war.
He is also the author of two books, "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and
the Undoing of Character" and "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and
the Trials of Homecoming,"
which examine the experiences of combat veterans through the lens of classical
texts.
Jason Threlfall
Dr. Jonathan
Shay
Book Excerpt:
'Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming'
"Across
America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles" (January 13, 2008)
Over 20 years
ago, Dr. Shay, then a medical researcher studying the biochemistry of
brain-cell death, suffered a stroke. During his recovery, he moved from
research into clinical work, taking a temporary job substituting for a
vacationing psychiatrist at a Department of Veteran Affairs clinic in Boston.
When that doctor died, Dr. Shay stayed on, challenged and inspired by the
terrible psychological injuries of the combat veterans.
During his
stroke recovery, Dr. Shay also began, as he put it, to fill in the gaps in his
education by reading the classics: "The
Iliad," "The Odyssey," and "The Aeneid." And it
was clear to him that his patients at the V.A. clinic were echoing many of the sentiments expressed by the warriors in
those ancient texts: betrayal by those in power, guilt for surviving, deep
alienation on their return from war.
“I realized
that I was hearing the story of Achilles over and over again,” said Dr. Shay.
For this
series, Deborah Sontag spoke with Dr. Shay, who recently won one of the
MacArthur Foundation’s coveted “genius awards,’’ about his unique perspective
on the psychological impact of war.
What happens when someone who has adapted to
war comes home?
What others
view as a mental disorder — post-traumatic stress disorder, that is — Dr. Shay
prefers to see as a psychological injury of war. Initially, when a service
member returns from war, he or she often retains the behaviors that they
adopted for their own survival while in a combat zone, he says.
“Most of it
really boils down to the valid adaptations in the mind and body to the real
situation of other people trying to kill you,’’ he said.
On PTSD, sleep and a breakthrough in
treatment.
Dr. Shay has
written about the connection between criminal behavior and combat trauma. He
refers to the problem as "staying in combat mode." In his writing, he
points out that the first adventure of Odysseus after the Trojan War was to
sack the city of Ismarus — essentially a pirate raid where the soldiers applied
their hard-earned wartime skills to a civilian environment. If this kind of
behavior is common, should the courts consider combat service when a veteran
has been charged with criminal activity?
On whether the effects of combat trauma
should be considered in criminal cases.
Dr. Shay has
become an advocate for preventing psychological war injuries as much as
possible through a variety of methods. For example, he believes that soldiers
should be deployed together, rather than trickling in and out of combat zones individually
as was the practice during the Vietnam War. A sense of community and stability are key, he
says, in preventing further damage
Once a Warrior--Always a Warrior: Navigating The
Transition From Combat To Home--Including Combat Stress, Ptsd, And Mtbi.
February 23, 2010. by Charles Hoge.
The
essential handbook for anyone who has ever returned from a war zone, and their
spouse, partner, or family members.
Being
back home can be as difficult, if not more so, than the time spent serving in a
combat zone. It's with this truth that Colonel Charles W. Hoge, MD, a leading
advocate for eliminating the stigma of mental health care, presents Once
a Warrior―Always a Warrior, a groundbreaking resource with essential
new insights for anyone who has ever returned home from a war zone.
In clear
practical language, Dr. Hoge explores the latest knowledge in combat stress,
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury),
other physiological reactions to war, and their treatment options. Recognizing
that warriors and family members both change during deployment, he helps them
better understand each other's experience, especially living with enduring
survival skills from the combat environment that are often viewed as “symptoms”
back home. The heart of this book focuses on what's necessary to
successfully navigate the transition―“LANDNAV” for the
home front.
Once a
Warrior―Always a Warrior shows how a warrior's knowledge and
skills are vital for living at peace in an insane world.
Fields of Combat: Understanding PTSD among Veterans of
Iraq and Afghanistan (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work). Erin P. Finley.
For
many of the 1.6 million U.S. service members who have served in Iraq and
Afghanistan since 2001, the trip home is only the beginning of a longer
journey. Many undergo an awkward period of readjustment to civilian life after
long deployments. Some veterans may find themselves drinking too much, unable
to sleep or waking from unspeakable dreams, lashing out at friends and loved
ones. Over time, some will struggle so profoundly that they eventually are
diagnosed with post-traumatic stress Disorder (PTSD).
Both
heartbreaking and hopeful, Fields of Combat tells the story of
how American veterans and their families navigate the return home. Following a
group of veterans and their their personal stories of war, trauma, and
recovery, Erin P. Finley illustrates the devastating impact PTSD can have on
veterans and their families. Finley sensitively explores issues of substance
abuse, failed relationships, domestic violence, and even suicide and also
challenges popular ideas of PTSD as incurable and permanently debilitating.
Drawing
on rich, often searing ethnographic material, Finley examines the cultural,
political, and historical influences that shape individual experiences of PTSD
and how its sufferers are perceived by the military, medical personnel, and
society at large. Despite widespread media coverage and public controversy over
the military's response to wounded and traumatized service members, debate
continues over how best to provide treatment and compensation for
service-related disabilities. Meanwhile, new and highly effective treatments
are revolutionizing how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides trauma
care, redefining the way PTSD itself is understood in the process. Carefully
and compassionately untangling each of these conflicts, Fields of
Combat reveals the very real implications they have for veterans
living with PTSD and offers recommendations to improve how we care for this
vulnerable but resilient population.
Treating PTSD in Military Personnel: A Clinical
Handbook. by Bret A. Moore (Editor), Walter E. Penk (Editor), Matthew J.
Friedman (Foreword).
Guilford P, 2011.
This practical volume covers the full range of effective
treatments for PTSD and discusses their implementation with service members and
veterans. The focus is on how to meet this population's unique needs. From
conducting a thorough assessment to choosing an appropriate psychosocial or
pharmacological treatment, the expert editors and contributors provide guidance
based on years of experience in military contexts. The norms and values of
military culture are discussed. Chapters thoroughly describe available
therapies, review their strengths and limitations, and use illustrative case
examples to demonstrate the treatments in action. Also addressed are clinical
issues and co-occurring problems that can arise in this population, such as
traumatic brain injury and substance abuse, and strategies for dealing with
them.
THEATER REVIEW |
CONNECTICUT
War Leaves Wounds
Behind the Camera, Too
A Review of
‘Time Stands Still’ by Donald Margulies in Hartford by Lanny Nagler.
Matthew Boston,
Tim Altmeyer and Erika Rolfsrud in “Time Stands Still,” by Donald Margulies,
directed by Rob Ruggiero at Theaterworks.
By SYLVIANE
GOLD
Published:
August 23, 2013
Playwrights who
know it all can often provide first-rate entertainment. But the very best plays
usually come from writers who don’t necessarily have all the answers, who don’t
insist on telling us what to think about the developments onstage and who don’t
offer neat solutions to their characters’ problems.
Lanny Nagler
Mr. Boston,
with Liz Holtan and Mr. Altmeyer.
Donald
Margulies, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for “Dinner With Friends,” has been
writing that kind of play ever since “Sight Unseen” in 1992. And “Time Stands
Still,” the 2010 Tony nominee currently in an outstanding production at TheaterWorks
in Hartford, is his finest work to date. Like the earlier plays, it asks us to
ponder the intricacies of love and friendship and the emotional perils of
professional success. But this one, expertly directed by Theater Works’s
producing artistic director, Rob Ruggiero, goes beyond the personal to explore
the moral ambiguities of journalism, a subject that both producers and
consumers of the news media tend to avoid.
Mr. Margulies
isn’t worried here about journalists’ ethics; his concern is the very
underpinnings of the enterprise. “I live off the suffering of strangers,” says
Sarah, the conflict photographer at the heart of the play. “I built a career on
the sorrows of people I don’t know.” Is she, as she sometimes feels, “a ghoul
with a camera”? Or is she a crucial witness to truths that would pass unnoticed
without her, as she believes in her less anguished moments? In the no-nonsense
performance of Erika Rolfsrud, Sarah is clearly driven by both high ideals and
an addiction to danger.
When the play
begins, she has come a little too close to the latter. With one arm in a sling,
one leg in a cast and a face pitted with shrapnel scars (the work of the makeup
artist Joe Rossi), Sarah has returned home from a German hospital after falling
prey to a roadside bomb in Iraq. Carrying her gear and watching her every
painful move is James, the war correspondent who has been her companion for
some eight years. . . .The play’s title accurately describes what happens when
a camera shutter clicks, but “time stands still” is also a lie. Time moves
right along, and as John Lasiter’s sterling lighting takes the loft through the
days and nights of Sarah’s recuperation, and her many mood swings, we learn
that James, in the sympathetic
performance of Tim Altmeyer, has war wounds of his own — and that the two of
them appear to have very different definitions of healing. . . .
FILMS
POSTER
GIRL
June 29, 2011
Contact: Dick
Bennett, 442-4600; Gladys Tiffany, 935-4422
Subject: Film
of Female Iraq
THIS FILM BY ITS HAND-HELD REALISM AND ITS FOCUS ON
ONE PERSON HAS AN INTENSE IMMEDIACY MANY FILMS LACK. You will be pained and grieved by this film
but you will be glad you saw it. Dick
The film “Poster Girl” will be shown SUNDAY, July 10,
6:30 p.m., at the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology, 3274 Lee Ave. North College
Poster Girl is a 2010 documentary
film about an American female soldier's experience with Posttraumatic stress disorder after
returning from the Iraq War. The
film showed at the 37th Telluride Film Festival on September 3,
2010. It was nominated for the Academy Award for
Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 83rd Academy Awards on January 25, 201l, but
lost to Strangers No More..
It will be shown on
HBO in September.
The documentary
short film is a production of Portrayal Films and was conceived by Mitchell
Block and produced by Mitchell Block and Sarah Nesson and directed and
photographed by first-time Sarah Nesson. Sarah is the niece of Ralph Nesson of Fayetteville
Poster Girl is the
story of Robynn Murray, an all-American high-school cheerleader turned “poster
girl” for women in combat, distinguished by Army
Magazine’s cover shot. Now home from Iraq
POSTER GIRL is an emotionally raw
documentary that follows Robynn over the course of two years as she embarks on
a journey of self-discovery and redemption, using art, poetry, and public
speaking to redefine her life.
Rev. by Pat McSweeney,
“Robynn Murray Unwilling Poster Girl,”
in The Servant Song (Spring 2011).
Last
October, at the Agape’s St. Francis Day event, six remarkable women reported on
the toll that various wars had taken on their respective lives. The audience listened with collectively held breath.
Robynn Murray’s account was riveting.
The youngest of the Women and War group, she is a veteran who (barely) survived
unspeakable events in Iraq. In addition to being directly involved in brutal
military action, she was subjected to sexual harassment and had her complaints
casually dismissed by commanding officers. Appointments
with medical doctors led to
“drugs and more drugs and more drugs”. She
returned to the States shattered in spirit and physically fragile. Robynn’s candor
about her persistent PTSD and dependence on drugs was heartbreaking. MORE
http://agapecommunity.org/2015redesign/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Servant-Song-Spring-2011-final.pdf
Pat McSweeney activist and peacemaker,
advocates for Fr. Roy Bourgeois and attended recent plowshares trials, just a
few of her contributions to nonviolence.
From: Heather Courtney <quincyhillfilms@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 5:35 PM
Subject: Emmy-winning film on the costs of war
To: vfp@iabv.com
Hello,
Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 5:35 PM
Subject: Emmy-winning film on the costs of war
To: vfp@iabv.com
Hello,
I
contacted your Veterans For Peace chapter last year about my Emmy-winning documentary, WHERE
SOLDIERS COME FROM. The film
focuses on the four-year journey of childhood friends, from teenagers stuck in
their small town, to National Guard soldiers looking for roadside bombs in
Afghanistan, to 23-year-old veterans dealing with the silent war wounds of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury
(TBI).
As an organization
that helps the families of soldiers and veterans, I thought you might be
interested in using the film as a community-based tool. Some Veterans For
Peace chapters and other veterans and military family groups have organized
community screenings of WHERE SOLDIERS
COME FROM to build understanding of what soldiers, veterans and their
families are going through, in a workshop setting to open up a dialogue between
veterans and their families and loved ones, and as a fundraiser for their
organization.
You can watch a trailer at www.wheresoldierscomefrom.com/trailer.php. It is a
different war film in that it follows the full experience – over the course of
the film, we see the young men before they become soldiers, during their
deployment, and after they come home and work to reintegrate back into civilian
society. It would be a great film to organize a Memorial Day or
Armed Forces Day event around.
Community and
veteran groups can purchase Where
Soldiers Come From for screenings from our educational distributor New Day Films. Feel free
to share this information with others. If you have questions or want to discuss
a possible event in detail, please email me at quincyhillfilms@gmail.com, or call me at 512-565-1628.
Also, we are very flexible on price so let us know what works for you.
Thank you for the important work your organization does, and
I look forward to hearing from you.
Global PTSD Films:
Iran
UofA
Nadi Cinema, November 11, 2015: Marriage of the Blessed (dir. Mohsen
Makhmalbaf 1989)
Makhmalbaf
and his family have won numerous awards and produced some of the most important
Iranian films after the Islamic revolution. Marriage of the Blessed is
one of Makhmalbaf’s earlier movies dealing with difficult social issues. It is
the story of Haji, a shell-shocked young
revolutionary war photographer who is taken from an asylum to live with his
fiancée and her middle-class family. The idealist Haji comes face to face with
the practical concerns of his fiancée’s family, and his fiancée is caught in
between. The film captures the crisis of conscience and loss of idealism of not
only Haji but also Makhmalbaf, who was a strong early supporter of the Islamic
revolution. Haji begins to critique hypocrisy in the system, the new role of
the government, and the effect of materialism and capitalism in the society.
The result is one of the most powerful and despairing films about the consequences of the Iran-Iraq war.
Moral Injury
Books
Movies like American Sniper and The
Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service
in a war zone. The moral dimensions of their psychological injuries--guilt,
shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged-elude conventional
treatment. Georgetown philosophy professor Nancy Sherman turns her focus to
these moral injuries in Afterwar. She argues that psychology and
medicine alone are inadequate to help with many of the most painful questions
veterans are bringing home from war.
Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of experience working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's longest wars. She explores how veterans can go about reawakening their feelings without becoming re-traumatized; how they can replace resentment with trust; and the changes that need to be made in order for this to happen-by military courts, VA hospitals, and the civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war.
2.6 million soldiers are currently returning home from war, the greatest number since Vietnam. Facing an increase in suicides and post-traumatic stress, the military has embraced measures such as resilience training and positive psychology to heal mind as well as body. Sherman argues that some psychological wounds of war need a kind of healing through moral understanding that is the special province of philosophical engagement and listening.
Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of experience working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's longest wars. She explores how veterans can go about reawakening their feelings without becoming re-traumatized; how they can replace resentment with trust; and the changes that need to be made in order for this to happen-by military courts, VA hospitals, and the civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war.
2.6 million soldiers are currently returning home from war, the greatest number since Vietnam. Facing an increase in suicides and post-traumatic stress, the military has embraced measures such as resilience training and positive psychology to heal mind as well as body. Sherman argues that some psychological wounds of war need a kind of healing through moral understanding that is the special province of philosophical engagement and listening.
Warrior's Return: Restoring the Soul After War. 2014
by Edward Tick
War
touches us all―leaving visible and invisible wounds on the warriors who fight,
disrupting their families and communities, and leaving lasting imprints on our
national psyche. In spite of billions spent on psychological care and
reintegration programs, we face an epidemic of combat-related conditions such
as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). With Warrior’s Return,
Dr. Edward Tick presents a powerful case
for changing the way we welcome our veterans back from service―a vision and
a path for transforming the wounds of war into sources of wisdom, honor, and
growth.
After
more than 35 years of working with veterans, Dr. Tick has learned that our
conventional ways of addressing the trauma and woundings of war fall far short,
usually focusing only on symptoms and temporary relief. Drawing on lessons from
cross-cultural wisdom, mythical archetypes, and proven methods from psychology,
he offers this book as a valuable resource to help families, caregivers, and
returning veterans understand and cope with the life-changing effects of
combat, including:
·
Re-examining PTSD―why we must expand our understanding of the
full psychological and spiritual impact of war’s invisible wounds
·
Archetype of the warrior―service in combat as a “journey to the
underworld,” and why the return home is the most crucial stage
·
The warrior’s path―timeless wisdom from tradition, classical
philosophy, great leaders, and religious and mythological sources
·
How cultures around the world have welcomed home their returning
warriors for centuries―and what we can learn from them
·
The warrior’s initiation―how the old self dies on the
battlefield and a new, more mature self evolves in its place
·
Restoration―methods for overcoming disillusionment and
soul-fatigue to restore the warrior’s sense of purpose, motivation, and
connection
·
Coming home―specific steps for reintegrating our warriors back
into our families and communities
·
Honor―how a warrior can retain personal integrity and
self-respect even when they have participated in a war they don’t believe in
·
Forgiveness, reconciliation, and atonement―ways for warriors to
close the circle and begin healing what was destroyed
“This
is not a hopeless situation,” states Dr. Tick. “Lifelong suffering after war is
not inevitable if we understand war’s impact on the heart and soul, both for
ourselves and our culture.” For veterans and those who wish to support them, Warrior’s
Return offers step-by-step guidance for initiating our transformed
warriors into valued members of our community―with an essential map for the hero’s
journey home.
A portion
of the proceeds will be donated to Soldier’s Heart. Visit soldiersheart.net.
War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. December 30, 2005. by Edward Tick .
War and PTSD are on the public's mind as news stories
regularly describe insurgency attacks in Iraq and paint grim portraits of the
lives of returning soldiers afflicted with PTSD. These vets have recurrent
nightmares and problems with intimacy, can't sustain jobs or relationships, and
won't leave home, imagining "the enemy" is everywhere. Dr. Edward
Tick has spent decades developing healing techniques so effective that
clinicians, clergy, spiritual leaders, and veterans' organizations all over the
country are studying them. This book, presented here in an audio version, shows
that healing depends on our understanding of PTSD not as a mere stress
disorder, but as a disorder of identity
itself. In the terror of war, the very soul can flee, sometimes for life.
Tick's methods draw on compelling case studies and ancient warrior traditions
worldwide to restore the soul so that the veteran can truly come home to
community, family, and self.
LewRockwell.
The Moral Bankruptcy of Just War Theory By
Laurence M. Vance
April 5, 2016
Review of Robert Emmet Meagher, Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury
and Just War (Cascade Books, 2014), xxi + 161 pgs, paperback.
Much has been written about just war theory in recent
years—some of it to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and some of it to
condemn them. Robert Meagher does neither. He weighs just war theory in the
balances and finds it wanting.
Meagher is Professor of Humanities at Hampshire College in
Amherst, Massachusetts. He has “directed and participated in a range of events
and programs concerned with healing the spiritual wounds of war in veterans,
their families, and their communities.” He also served as an invited
commissioner for the National Truth Commission on Conscience in War. He writes
extensively, not only on the physical and mental traumas of war but also on
what he calls the “moral injuries” of war.
Killing
from the Inside Out is “the work of years—years of reading and
years of listening—nearly fifty years, in fact, of research, teaching,
activism, and advocacy.” The book’s title comes from what the mother of a
veteran of two deployments to Iraq said about what the army and the war did to
her son “so that he could imagine nothing better to do with his life than to
end it.” Before Noah Pierce put a gun to his head—and before he wrote that his
life had been hell since he was part of the 2003 Iraq invasion—he “bore no
physical wound, no sign of injury.” His wound explained his mother, “kills you
from the inside out.” It is this kind of
wound that Meagher terms a “moral injury.” Noah “thought of himself as a
murderer, and a bad person,” said his mother, “because he still had the urge to
hurt people, kill people.” She credits the U.S. Army with turning “her son into
a killer,” of “training him to kill,” but forgetting to “un-train him.”
Meagher explains that the book project began due to a
conversation with a friend, “an ex-Marine captain who served in Iraq and took
part in the invasion of Fallujah.” The captain remarked that any serious
critique of war “was and is and will be undermined before it starts by the
unthinking and all but universal acceptance of just war doctrine.” He wanted
the just war theory “to be taken down, discredited, revealed for the lie that
it is,” and challenged Meagher to be the one to do it.
And Meagher has certainly done it. MORE
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/04/laurence-m-vance/just-war-theory-immoral/
If you read only one book on World War I, read Jack Beatty’s The Lost History of 1914: Reconsidering the
Year the Great War Began. If you read only one book on World War II, read
Ted Grimsrud’s The Good War That Wasn’t —
And Why It Matters: World War II’s Moral Legacy. If you read only one book
on the Vietnam War, read Nick Turse’s Kill
Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. And now I can say that if you read only one book on the morality of just war
theory, read Robert Meagher’s Killing
from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War. I cannot
recommend it highly enough.
Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] writes from central
Florida. He is the author of The War on Drugs Is a War on Freedom; War,
Christianity, and the State: Essays on
the Follies of Christian Militarism; War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on
the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Policy; and many other books. His
newest book is the second edition of King James, His Bible, and Its
Translators. Visit his website
Contents #1
DOCUMENTARY
FILMS
Book: Philipps, David. Lethal
Warriors
Hidden Battles Documentary Film
Suicides
Poster Girl Documentary Film
IVAW Outreach
Contents
of #2
Chloe Fox: Rev.
of Castner, The Long Walk
Suicides July
2012
Women Homeless
Veterans
Staff Sgt.
Robert Bales
Book: Lethal
Warriors
Diagnosis
Gandolfini’s
documentary, Wartorn
Contents #3
PTSD TODAY
Arkansas
Arkansas
Obama To Troops: More Support
Zoroya,
Guilt and PTSD
McClelland,
PTSD Spreading to Families
PTSD IN EARLIER
WARS
World War II
Animated Film about WWII Battle
of the Bulge PTSD
Google Search
First Page
Korean War
Google Search
Newsletters: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/ For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and ecology
movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for change.
Blog: http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
For research purposes, specific subjects can be located in the
following alphabetized index, and searched on the blog using the search
box. The search box is located in the upper left corner of the webpage.
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
PART OF THE HISTORY OF OMNI’S ANTI-WAR FILM SERIES: 2011
OMNI’s Video Underground appears on the second and fourth Sunday nights
of each month. In addition to other
films, we are sponsoring a dozen films in 2011 presented by Gerald Sloan on
second Sundays to examine the US Empire:
Causes, Consequences, and Alternatives. We are now showing films June-September on
some of the Consequences of militarism and wars.
END US WARS AND PTSD/Moral Injury NEWSLETTER # 4
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