Cleveland Humanities Festival- Peter Meineck and the Aquila Theater Group: Warrior Chorus: Resources

This introduction to the invisible wound of war, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, explains the historical development of PTSD, its myriad symptoms and the most effective psychological and medical treatments. Combining the basic tenets of cognitive psychotherapy and his own military experience, the author explores such topics as PTSD's effects on families and spouses, fear and anxiety, memory difficulties, feelings of guilt or anger, depression and suicidal thoughts, and others.Because it is a hidden, psychological wound, veterans afflicted with PTSD may find it difficult to understand their symptoms. Veterans and their families can better understand PTSD by reading this book.

When soldiers at Fort Carson were charged with a series of 14 murders, PTSD and other "invisible wounds of war" were thrown into the national spotlight. With these events as their starting point, Jean Scandlyn and Sarah Hautzinger argue for a new approach to combat stress and trauma, seeing them not just as individual medical pathologies but as fundamentally collective cultural phenomena. Their deep ethnographic research, including unusual access to affected soldiers at Fort Carson, also engaged an extended labyrinth of friends, family, communities, military culture, social services, bureaucracies, the media, and many other layers of society. Through this profound and moving book, they insist that invisible combat injuries are a social challenge demanding collective reconciliation with the post-9/11 wars.

A pioneering researcher and one of the world’s foremost experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for healing   Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children.   Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring—specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy—and a way to reclaim lives.

Veteran suicide has become a national imperative. Twenty-two veterans kill themselves daily; almost one per hour. An average of one active-duty GI commits suicide every 1.1 days. Suicides among those on active duty hit a record high in 2012. There were 349 suicides among active duty personnel - almost one a day. That means there are now more suicides among active duty soldiers than there are combat deaths. These troubling facts are undeniable. Veteran Suicide: A Public Health Imperative focuses on identifying, assessing, and preventing risk for suicide among veterans of military service. Book jacket.

Nearly every day an active-duty soldier in the United States military resorts to suicide, and nearly every hour a veteran does the same. In recent years the problem of military suicides has reached epidemic proportions, but it's all too easy for most of us to gloss over the headlines or tuneout the details. In The Last and Greatest Battle -- the first book devoted exclusively to the problem of military suicides - John Bateson brings this neglected crisis into the spotlight. Bateson, the former executive director of a nationally certified suicide prevention center, surveys the history of suicide in theUnited States military from the Civil War to the present day and outlines a plan to save lives - and ultimately end the tragedy of military suicides.He uses the stories of individual soldiers to illuminate the unique challenges faced by American troops today. Transitioning from the front lines to the home front is difficult for many service members, and many need help both during and after their deployments. But even though the military isspending millions of dollars on suicide prevention programs, record numbers of soldiers continue to take their lives. To that end, Bateson outlines a plan of action. If the military works to remove stigma, to make treatment more effective and more accessible, and to limit risk factors for suicide in the first place by taking measures like reducing the number and length of deployments and adjusting pre-deploymenttraining to take into account the way that wars are waged today, an end to the problem of military suicide is as possible as it is essential.

Healing War Trauma details a broad range of exciting approaches for healing from the trauma of war. The techniques described in each chapter are designed to complement and supplement cognitive-behavioral treatment protocols--and, ultimately, to help clinicians transcend the limits of those protocols. For those veterans who do not respond productively to--or who have simply little interest in--office-based, regimented, and symptom-focused treatments, the innovative approaches laid out in Healing War Trauma will inspire and inform both clinicians and veterans as they chart new paths to healing.

Odysseus lost his way, but students shouldn't have to. This delightful companion, written in a lively narrative style and full of fresh insights and interpretations, offers teachers a wealth of ideas for making Homer's timeless epic come alive for students. Introductory chapters provide the historical and mythological background necessary to fully appreciate the events in the Odyssey. A fascinating essay acquaints students with Homeric values and another examines the Odyssey as literature, offering expert discussion of the work's structure and poetic features and situating it in the oral tradition it exemplifies. Maps, charts, tables, and photographs help readers further appreciate the story and its historical context. At the core of this resource are units on each of the 24 books of the Odyssey; each is attractively presented with an illustration, plot synopsis, and discussion of theme and character development. Well-placed sidebars offer supplemental information on various facets of classical antiquity, such as the position of women in Ancient Greece, the role of competitive sports, and interesting etymological aspects of the Greek language. At the back of the book is a listing of main characters, along with a handy pronunciation guide. Additional appendices explore the enduring influence of the Odyssey in literature, the arts, and even popular culture, with a separate section examining Odyssean themes in movies. Useful ideas for activities and classroom projects are offered, as are suggestions for further reading and online research.

<i>A Companion to Sophocles</i> presents the first comprehensive collection of essays in decades to address all aspects of the life, works, and critical reception of Sophocles.<br /> <br /> <ul> <li>First collection of its kind to provide introductory essays to the fragments of his lost plays and to the remaining fragments of one satyr-play, the <i>Ichneutae</i>, in addition to each of his extant tragedies</li> <li>Features new essays on Sophoclean drama that go well beyond the current state of scholarship on Sophocles</li> <li>Presents readings that historicize Sophocles in relation to the social, cultural, and intellectual world of fifth century Athens</li> <li>Seeks to place later interpretations and adaptations of Sophocles in their historical context</li> <li>Includes essays dedicated to issues of gender and sexuality; significant moments in the history of interpreting Sophocles; and reception of Sophocles by both ancient and modern playwrights</li> </ul>

Euripides' Heracles is an extraordinary play of great complexity, exploring the co-existence of both positive and negative aspects of the eponymous hero. Euripides treats Heracles' ambivalence by showing his uncertain position after the completion of his labours and turns him into a tragic hero by dramatizing his development from the invincible hero of the labours to the courageous bearer of suffering. This book offers a comprehensive reading of Heracles examining it in the contexts of Euripidean dramaturgy, Greek drama and fifth-century Athenian society. It shows that the play, which raises profound questions on divinity and human values, deserves to have a prominent place in every discussion about Euripides and about Greek tragedy. Tracing some of Euripides' most spectacular writing in terms of emotional and intellectual effect, and discussing questions of narrative, rhetoric, stagecraft and audience reception, this work is required reading for all students and scholars of Euripides.