Jonathan Shay
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Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
7 editions
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published
1994
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Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming
by
6 editions
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published
2002
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The Benefits of Tomato
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published
2012
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Combat Stress Injury: Theory, Research, and Management
8 editions
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published
2006
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Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War
by
4 editions
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published
2014
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Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War
by
4 editions
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published
2006
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Continuing Actions: A Warrior's Guide to Coming Home
by
2 editions
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published
2015
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Losing Tim: The Life and Death of an American Contractor in Iraq
by
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published
2014
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Voices in Wartime Anthology
by
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published
2010
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Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories--Life After Iraq and Afghanistan
by
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published
2015
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“Melodramas of moral courage provide satisfaction through the comforting fantasy that our own character would hold steady under the most extreme pressure of dreadful events. [But we must face] the painful awareness that in all likelyhood one's own character would not have stood firm.”
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
“As beasts are beneath human restraints, gods are above them... It would be foolish and untruthful to deny the appeal of exalted, godlike intoxication....We have seen the paradox that these godlike exalted moments often correspond to times when the men who have survived them say that they have acted like beasts....Above all, a sense of merely human virtue, a sense of being valued and of valuing anything seems to have fled their lives....However, all of our virtues come from not being gods. Generosity is meaningless to a god, who never suffers shortage or want. Courage is meaningless to a god, who is immortal and can never suffer permanent injury. The godlike berserk state can destroy the capacity for virtue. Whether the berserker is beneath humanity as an animal, above it as a god, or both, he is cut off from all human community when he is in this state.”
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
“Many Vietnam veterans I see in the clinic swing painfully between a crushed, tainted mortality and its nostalgically longed-for, but dreaded, godlike opposite. Above all, a sense of merely human virtue, a sense of being valued and of valuing anything, seems to have fled their lives. As products of biblical culture, most veterans believed it is nobler to strive to be like God than to want to be human. However, all of our virtues come from not being gods; generosity is meaningless to a god, who never suffers shortage or want; courage is meaningless to a god, who is immortal and can never suffer permanent injury; and so on.”
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
― Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
Topics Mentioning This Author
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Classics and the ...: Books 15 and 16 | 90 | 45 | Jun 10, 2018 07:01AM |
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