2016 - Jonathan Shay - Cleveland Humanities Festival - Research Guides at Case Western Reserve University

Introduction

This guide was prepared for the presentation by Jonathan Shay on April 1, 2016 entitled "Remembering War."

Cleveland Humanties Festival

Biography

Jonathan Shay is a clinical psychiatrist whose treatment of combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans combined with his critical and imaginative interpretations of the ancient accounts of battle described in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are deepening our understanding of the effects of warfare on the individual. His book, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994), draws parallels between the depiction of the epic warrior-hero Achilles and the experiences of individual veterans whom he treats at a Boston-area Veterans Affairs’ Outpatient Clinic. Reading the poem through the lens of modern experience, Shay rediscovers important nuances that traditional scholarship has often understated in the classical text, particularly that the Iliad is fundamentally a story about the frequently contentious relationship between soldiers and their leaders. In Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002), using Odysseus as metaphor, Shay focuses on the veteran’s experience upon returning from war and highlights the role of military policy in promoting the mental and physical safety of soldiers. A passionate advocate for veterans and committed to minimizing future psychological trauma, Shay strives for structural reform of the ways the U.S. armed forces are organized, trained, and counseled. Respected by humanists and military leaders alike, Shay brings into stark relief the emotional problems faced by military combatants and veterans, ancient and modern.

Books by Jonathan Shay

Achilles in Vietnam by Jonathan Shay
ISBN: 9780684813219
An original and groundbreaking book that examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder In this strikingly original and groundbreaking book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets.
Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay
ISBN: 9780743211567
The author of "Achilles in Vietnam" analyzes the problems faced by combat veterans reentering civilian society through a unique, allegorical reading of Homer's "Odyssey."

Articles by Jonathan Shay

From an unlicensed philosopher: reflections on brain, mind, society, culture-each other's environments with equal 'ontologic standing' Shay From an unlicensed philosopher; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Philosophic conclusions drawn from work with psychologically and morally injured combat veterans include that brain, mind, society, and culture 'co-evolved.' The four encompass the complete human phenomenon, but not all are reducible to the physical brain. None of the four are 'ontologically prior' to the others, when viewed over the entire lifecycle. All four are what I call 'each other's environments,' with obligatory cross-boundary flows-each with each in both directions. Rigorous, but nonreductionist interdisciplinary research, in the vein of 'evo-devo' in embryology, is called for in the study of the human phenomena. On the basis of these conclusions, I offer a few practical comments on clinical work with psychologically and morally injured combat veterans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Casualties; Daedalus
Privation and disease have mainly killed soldiers until very recently. Now that enemy action predominates, faster and better control of bleeding and infection before and during evacuation spares ever more lives today. This essayfocuses on psychological war wounds, placing them in the context of military casualties. The surgeon's concepts of "primwy" wounds in war, and of wound "complications" and "contamination,"serve as modelsfor psychological and moral injury in war. "Psychological injury" is explained and preferred to "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," being less stigmatizing and morefaithful to the phenomenon. Primary psychological injury equates to the direct damage done by a bullet; the complications -for example, alcohol abuse - equate to hemorrhage and infection, Two current senses of "moral injury" equate to wound contamination. As with physical wounds, it is the complications and contamination of mental wounds that most often kill service members or veterans, or blight their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Moral Injury; Intertexts
An essay is presented on psychologically and morally injured combat veterans. It offers a lecture on the distinction between designations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury in defining the psychological casualties of war. It revisits both the "Illiad" and "Odyssey" as salient examples of failed leadership. The author qualifies the definition of moral injury by emphasizing on the role played by superior military personnel when incidents of moral injury occur. [ABSTRACT]
Just One Critter; Hedgehog Review
This article discusses the ways in which mental suffering is framed by professionals and understood by war veterans particularly to the idea of injury. Judith Herman described in her book "Trauma and Recovery," the awareness of psychological trauma and numb avoidance and observed that stable knowledge of psychological trauma depends critically upon an endlessly supportive social movement. As described in the book "Slavery and Social Death," by Orlando Patterson, the social processes of enslavement are identical to the conditions of coercive control that give rise to complex psychological trauma. As to the veteran bearing an unhealed trauma, he cannot function politically in a democracy because it disables basic social and cognitive capacities required for democratic participation. [ABSTRACT]

Books related to war veterans and psychological trauma

The Evil Hours by David J. Morris
ISBN: 9780544086616
In the tradition ofThe Emperor of All Maladies andThe Noonday Demon, a moving, eye-opening exploration of PTSD Just as polio loomed over the 1950s, and AIDS stalked the 1980s and '90s, posttraumatic stress disorder haunts us in the early years of the twenty-first century. Over a decade into the United States' "global war on terror," PTSD afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict's veterans. But the disorder's reach extends far beyond the armed forces. In total, some twenty-seven million Americans are believed to be PTSD survivors. Yet to many of us, the disorder remains shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame. Now, David J. Morris -- a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself -- has written the essential account of this illness. Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, Morris crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.
Flashback by Penny Coleman
ISBN: 9780807050415
With the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, once again America's men and women who have seen war close-up are suddenly expected to return seamlessly to civilian life. In Flashback, Penny Coleman tells the cautionary and timely story of posttraumatic stress disorder in the hope that we can sensitively assist those veterans who return from combat in need of help, and the families struggling to support them.
Moving a Nation to Care by Ilona Meagher; Robert Roerich (Introduction by)
ISBN: 9780977197279
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in our returning combat troops is one of the most catastrophic issues confronting our nation. Yet, despite the fact that nearly 20 percent of the over half million troops that have left the military since 2003 have been diagnosed with PTSD, and that many who suffer symptoms are unlikely to seek help because of the stigma of this terrible disease, our government and media have remained silent. Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops is a grassroots call to action designed to break the shameful silence and put the issue of PTSD in our returning troops front and center before the American public. In addition to presenting interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering with PTSD, such as Blake Miller, the famous "Marlboro Man," this book will be the most comprehensive resource to date for concerned citizens who want to understand the complex political, social, and health-related issues of PTSD, with an eye toward "moving our nation to care" to do what is necessary to help our fighting men and women who suffer from PTSD. Ilona Meagher is editor of the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within and author of the PTSD Timeline, a comprehensive database of PTSD incidents. She has appeared on Fox News and numerous other media outlets. Robert Roerich, MD, is one of the world experts in trauma therapy and PTSD and a board member of the National Gulf War Resource Center.