Citation

Stern J. Psychoanal. Psychol. 2014; 31(2): 255-261.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0036008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The wars on terrorism are exposing our military personnel to unprecedented levels of psychological injury. And yet, nearly a decade in, we remain unprepared to handle the growing numbers of personnel seeking treatment. Several factors seem to be implicated. The first is our defense personnel policy. By choosing an approach that requires longer and more frequent redeployments, we have inadvertently increased the risk to our troops of sustaining psychological wounds, including moral injury. Second, in the wars on terrorism, combatants do not wear identifying marks. They often hide among civilians, increasing the risk of inadvertent civilian casualties, another source of moral injury. Third, and perhaps ironically, when military personnel know that they have hit their target-as is the case with drone pilots and among personnel involved in close combat-they are at greater risk to develop posttraumatic stress disorder, even when the target is a known enemy combatant. Meanwhile, military suicides have reached a record high, outnumbering combat deaths in Afghanistan. As we get better at keeping wounded warriors alive, we need to get better, and more serious, about developing tools for healing injuries to the mind and brain. This article proposes that research focus on therapies tailored to mitigate shame and guilt, the hallmarks of moral injury. ©2014 American Psychological Association.

Language: en

Keywords

human; morality; major depression; posttraumatic stress disorder; shame; article; torture; rape; psychotrauma; terrorism; soldier; guilt; military deployment; life threat; Moral injury; Delayed-onset PTSD; Killing; Noncombatant; Perpetrator