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Moral Injury and Beyond: Understanding Human Anguish and Healing Traumatic Wounds
Moral Injury and Beyond: Understanding Human Anguish and Healing Traumatic Wounds uniquely brings together a prominent collection of international contributors from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, theology, military chaplaincy and acute crisis care to address the phenomenon of moral injury. Introduced in the 1990s to refer to a type of psychological trauma, experienced especially by soldiers who felt that their actions transgressed the expected moral norms, this innovative volume provides a timely update that progresses and redefines the field of moral injury.
The ten ground-breaking essays expand our understanding of moral injury beyond its original military context, arguing that it can fruitfully be applied to and address predicaments most persons face in their daily lives. Approaching moral injury from different perspectives, the contributors focus on the experiences of combat veterans and other survivors of violent forms of adversity. The chapters address thought-provoking questions and topics, such as how survivors can regain their hope and faith, and how they can, in time, explore ways that will lead them to grow through their suffering. Exploring moral injury with a particular emphasis on spirituality, the early Church Fathers form the framework within which several chapters examine moral injury, articulating a new perspective on this important subject. The insights advanced are not limited to theoretical innovations but also include practical methods of dealing with the effects of moral injury.
This pioneering collection will be essential resource for mental health practitioners and trainees working with people suffering from severe trauma. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it will be useful not only to those academics and professionals engaged with moral injury but will be a source of inspiration for any perceptive student of the complexities and dilemmas of modern life, especially as it interfaces with issues of mental health and spirituality. It will also be invaluable to academics and students of Jungian psychology, theology, philosophy and history interested in war, migration and the impact of extreme forms of adversity.
The ten ground-breaking essays expand our understanding of moral injury beyond its original military context, arguing that it can fruitfully be applied to and address predicaments most persons face in their daily lives. Approaching moral injury from different perspectives, the contributors focus on the experiences of combat veterans and other survivors of violent forms of adversity. The chapters address thought-provoking questions and topics, such as how survivors can regain their hope and faith, and how they can, in time, explore ways that will lead them to grow through their suffering. Exploring moral injury with a particular emphasis on spirituality, the early Church Fathers form the framework within which several chapters examine moral injury, articulating a new perspective on this important subject. The insights advanced are not limited to theoretical innovations but also include practical methods of dealing with the effects of moral injury.
This pioneering collection will be essential resource for mental health practitioners and trainees working with people suffering from severe trauma. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it will be useful not only to those academics and professionals engaged with moral injury but will be a source of inspiration for any perceptive student of the complexities and dilemmas of modern life, especially as it interfaces with issues of mental health and spirituality. It will also be invaluable to academics and students of Jungian psychology, theology, philosophy and history interested in war, migration and the impact of extreme forms of adversity.
160 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2020
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February 18, 2021
To understand the effects of stress, isolation and adversity throughout history - including during this pandemic time - we are called to understand not just the concept of post-traumatic stress, but also the concept of moral injury.
How do we understand and come to terms with wounds that affect body, soul and mind?
This series of ten essays deeply inform, and bring an awareness that moral injury extends far beyond the military, without minimizing the devastating effects of moral injury on returning veterans.
The essays are offered from multiple perspectives and enriched my understanding of the history and breadth of this concept. Decades after reading Shay's Achilles in Vietnam, Moral Injury and Beyond brought a renewed and enlarged vision of what this groundbreaking account brought to our attention in the post-Vietnam early Nineties.
In the final chapter, written by veteran, writer and psychotherapist David Williams Alexander, we are reminded that the deep human toll of moral injury is a call - echoed throughout this book - for a multidisciplinary approach to this still poorly understood phenomenon. Can we bring together the best of psychiatry, psychotherapy, somatic trauma therapy, philosophy, classical studies and theology to create rituals and communities of healing? And as we better understand the course and intransigence of moral injury (especially in responding to a medical model) and its enduring cost to its victims and our collective, can we afford not to take steps that might lead to moral redemption and regeneration?
How do we understand and come to terms with wounds that affect body, soul and mind?
This series of ten essays deeply inform, and bring an awareness that moral injury extends far beyond the military, without minimizing the devastating effects of moral injury on returning veterans.
The essays are offered from multiple perspectives and enriched my understanding of the history and breadth of this concept. Decades after reading Shay's Achilles in Vietnam, Moral Injury and Beyond brought a renewed and enlarged vision of what this groundbreaking account brought to our attention in the post-Vietnam early Nineties.
In the final chapter, written by veteran, writer and psychotherapist David Williams Alexander, we are reminded that the deep human toll of moral injury is a call - echoed throughout this book - for a multidisciplinary approach to this still poorly understood phenomenon. Can we bring together the best of psychiatry, psychotherapy, somatic trauma therapy, philosophy, classical studies and theology to create rituals and communities of healing? And as we better understand the course and intransigence of moral injury (especially in responding to a medical model) and its enduring cost to its victims and our collective, can we afford not to take steps that might lead to moral redemption and regeneration?
Displaying 1 of 1 review