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Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Jonathan Shay

4.28 · Rating details · 1,504 ratings · 139 reviews

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 experience ...more

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Paperback, 272 pages

Published October 1st 1995 by Scribner (first published 1994)

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May 12, 2012 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: military-history, western-canon

Homer is ever present in modern culture, but his power is often reduced to a kind of cartoon. The Iliad becomes a sword-and-sandals Hollywood cliche and the Odyssey becomes the original road movie. Shay brings the Iliad back to reality by shining a new light on the ferocious pain of Achilles, pain that today might be called PTSD, but which Shay calls "moral injury."

Shay reads the Iliad as a psychologist and observes in Achilles some of the same symptoms that he sees in his patients, many of who ...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war, literary-criticism

Jonathan Shay is a psychotherapist – and impressive amateur classicist – who has spent decades treating Vietnam veterans with severe PTSD. In this fascinating book, he analyzes what he sees as the moral breakdown of Achilles in terms of factors common to the Vietnam War. The first section of the book outlines these factors: a betrayal of “what’s right”; the shrinkage of the social and moral horizon; grief at the death of a special comrade; guilt and wrongful substitution; and going berserk (a cl Jonathan Shay is a psychotherapist – and impressive amateur classicist – who has spent decades treating Vietnam veterans with severe PTSD. In this fascinating book, he analyzes what he sees as the moral breakdown of Achilles in terms of factors common to the Vietnam War. The first section of the book outlines these factors: a betrayal of “what’s right”; the shrinkage of the social and moral horizon; grief at the death of a special comrade; guilt and wrongful substitution; and going berserk (a clinical condition, not slang). In each of the chapters he describes these conditions as revealed through years of treating veterans, often quoting transcripts of therapy sessions, and analyzes their presence in The Iliad. In the second section he goes through soldiers’ common reactions to these conditions, again drawing from Vietnam veterans’ accounts, and demonstrates the same reactions in Achilles. It’s convincing and utterly compelling.

I’m no classical scholar, but I have read The Iliad many times and can appreciate his deep understanding and meticulous examination. His book is worth multiple readings. In fact, Achilles in Vietnam has filled a role in my understanding similar to movies of favorite novels, like “Gone With the Wind” – now I can’t read The Iliad without this as context and subtext! I also was stunned by the descriptions of combat in Vietnam — both the conditions of guerilla warfare against the Viet Cong and common U.S. military practices seemed designed to inflict maximum psychological damage on our soldiers. Be forewarned: this is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve studied the Vietnam War then much of this will be familiar. If not, brace yourself; the accounts are from men whose combat trauma was debilitating enough that they sought professional help. Also, Dr. Shay quotes veterans’ words verbatim, and the profanity is almost as stunning as the substance. I have no tolerance for profanity and felt like I needed to wash out my head with a power hose, yet at the same time I couldn’t help feel sorry for both the lack of education that often produces such a low level of language and the obvious crutch that profanity was for these men; if the eloquent can’t find words to describe such horrors, what hope had they? (Not all the interviewees swear four or five times in a sentence; there are distinct levels of language corresponding to levels of education, a fact that the Vietnam veterans I know are quick to assert.) The final section of the book focuses on PTSD and possible healing, with less analysis of Achilles; nonetheless, it’s fascinating reading.
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Dec 11, 2007 James rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Adolescents and adults

Shelves: military, culture-and-politics, psychology, reference, literature, poetry, philosophy

A powerful study of the impact of PTSD on the human personality, using the Iliad and other classic literary portraits of traumatized warriors to illustrate the timelessness of this problem with special emphasis on the reasons that the Vietnam war was a more shattering experience for many veterans than other wars have been.

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May 27, 2019 Jimmy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war-vietnam

This book was published in 1994. For some reason it slipped through the radar for me and my reading about Vietnam. That date also means one needs to be careful about using the material to help a veteran. Also I did have some doubts about the veracity of some stories, but who am I to judge.

I was totally immersed in the book which accounts for the many notes I took.

The cover photo is known as "Reaching Out." It brings tears to my eyes every time I look at it. I can get lost in the tiny details o ...more

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May 20, 2018 Janell Rhiannon rated it it was amazing

This book changed the way I saw Achilles. It helped me see the "human" side of the hero birthed by a nymph. Jonathan Shay did two things: described how modern soldiers are affected by war and how Achilles was affected by war. Chapter by chapter, he connects Achilles emotions and actions with the modern warrior. You understand how grief manifests into rage...for today's soldier, as well as yesterday's warrior, using the Iliad and Achilles as the touchstone. It's a fascinating read. I highly recom ...more

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Jun 18, 2012 David Litwack rated it it was amazing

The definitive work on Vietnam era post traumatic stress. The Author compares the way warriors (soldiers) dealt with the hardship of war in Vietnam and in the Trojan war, based on the Odyssey. The book is filled with moving vignettes, dialog from the Odyssey compared with actual discussions between Vietnam vets and the author.

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Sep 24, 2012 David Sarkies rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Polticians, Managers, Bureaucrats

Recommended to David by: Amazon (That is where I first discovered it)

Shelves: sociology

Failures of the American Army
30 September 2012

This is one of the toughest books that I have read to date and pretty much halfway through the chapter on grief I found that my brain had been reduced to slush. Now, I have never been to war and never experienced war, but when Shay says in his introduction that this book will have a tendency to bring flashbacks to combat veterans he was not kidding. As I suggested, I am not a combat veteran and I found this book very hard going myself, and in a way, Failures of the American Army
30 September 2012

This is one of the toughest books that I have read to date and pretty much halfway through the chapter on grief I found that my brain had been reduced to slush. Now, I have never been to war and never experienced war, but when Shay says in his introduction that this book will have a tendency to bring flashbacks to combat veterans he was not kidding. As I suggested, I am not a combat veteran and I found this book very hard going myself, and in a way, reading this book also brought about flashbacks from my past, and I would hardly say that I suffer from PTSD or have had a hard life compared to many others in our society.

Jonathan Shay is a psychiatrist that works with Vietnam vets helping them cope with civilian life and helping them (I feel that the word recover would be an inappropriate word since there are some things that one can never recover from, such as an amputation, and some psychological trauma simply cannot be healed) live with the psychological trauma that is likely to be with them for the rest of their lives. When somebody once coined the phrase (I cannot remember who it was but I believe it was some American General in World War II) War is Hell, he wasn't kidding, and the testimonies that we are told from the Vietnam Vets who had agreed shared their stories go a long way to demonstrate this.

As I read through this book the nagging feeling that kept gnawing away at me was whether the United States, in the way that they run their army as one would run a corporation, can really expect to be able to win a modern war. The way the army is constructed may be able to win a war where two nations throw armies up against each other, such as what happened in World War II, and even in Korea, but when the war that one is fighting is against insurgents who continually melt back into the civilian population, then the way one fights a war and constructs the armed forces, may need to be reviewed. An army is not a police force and a police force is not an army, and the Americans discovered that when they attempted to use the national guard to attempt to put down anti-Vietnam protests in the United States. The role of the police is to protect the order of society and to thoroughly investigate crimes to make sure that the real perpetrator is arrested. However, the job of an army is to defeat the enemy: in effect to shoot first and ask questions later.

One of the problems that Shay has pointed out, and this is something that is not new because this is the way wars have been evolving over the last half a millennium, is that the commanders are becoming more and more removed from the battlefield, to a point where they do not see that action and do not understand the nature of war. Von Clausewitz indicated this in his book 'On War' when he talks about the concept of the fog of war. The best way to describe this is that what may look good on paper does not necessarily work on the ground. It should be interesting to note that when a general actually joins the troops and leads the troops (as opposed to directing the troops from a bunker behind the lines, or even thousands of miles away) the effectiveness of the army actually increases, and we only need to look at Napoleon's successes to be able to see that.

However the nature of war has changed a lot since Napoleon's day. As technology advances we continually distance ourselves more and more from the enemy, to the point where it is almost becoming like a computer game. Shay talks about how the modern Judeo-Christian ethic seeks to demonise the enemy to make the enemy easier to kill. To some people it is easier to kill a dog than a human because the dog is not a human, so to get over humanity's resistance to killing another human, we turn the enemy into an animal. However, the opposite also works true in that by turning the soldier into an animal the human loses all concept of their humanity and becomes like the animal. Of course, the problem that arises is that the human can no longer return to human society, a concept that is explored elsewhere.

I particularly appreciated his discussion of the way troops were trained. One particular movie that I have seen about the Vietnam war clearly brings this idea out (the movie is Full Metal Jacket) and that is where the trainer (and in cases commanders) are constantly focusing on where the person is failing rather than their successes. The belief is that by constantly denigrating the soldier it forces the soldier to overcome his or her weaknesses and thus becomes a better soldier. This is not the case (and I shall explore this when I discuss the nature of warfare and the corporation below). In Full Metal Jacket, the poorest performer in the group ends up shooting himself in the toilet, and we learn from this book that this is not as far fetched as it seems. We are told the story of a helicopter pilot that was torn to pieces for refusing to do something, then going out and killing himself.

Shay refers a lot to the Illiad in this book, and uses the story to show us what war is about. There are a lot of differences, but there is also a lot of insight into the effect of war upon the individual. Remember, in the ancient world, all males were warriors so all males had experienced war. Tragedy was a way to help the citizens to cope with returning to civilian life. Also, we note, that the main characters in the Illiad are all commanders, and they are all involved in the fighting. This is not the case today. Where the commanders in the Illiad knew what it was like on the ground, the commanders today do not. As such, the orders that are passed down come from people, in many cases who have not seen or experienced action, and expect the soldiers to obey them. I remember when I explored a military position after completing university, I discovered that I could walk into the army at the rank of major, which meant that I would never have to see combat action, and with my law degree, I would be dealing with people who had seen action with no understanding of what it would have been like to have been out there. Fighting a war on the ground requires quick thinking and a willingness to do things on the spur of the moment, however the chain of command does not allow the soldier to do this. The soldier must obey his commanding officer, and any deviation from that is punishable. They say that the back bone of the American Army is the chain of command, and by ignoring the chain of command will undermine the army. However, as we have seen in Vietnam, and more recently, in Iraq, it was the chain of command that proved to be the armies undoing.

Now, I will speak of the idea of the corporation as the army. Having worked in the corporation, I have seem many elements that have come out of the book. We take the idea of the manager as the commander. When you are on the floor, you may be exposed to direct customer contact, and in some positions that can be really draining. However, the higher up the managerial chain, the less customer contact you have. However the higher up you go, the more you are expected to have the people beneath you perform to a high standard. If the people beneath you fail, you fail. However, consider an irate customer screaming at you, and you are not permitted to terminate the call because the customer is everything. The customer pays the company money, and it is expected that the customer continue to pay the company money, however it is not the manager's job to take the call. The company has upset the customer, however the person on the floor is expected to resolve the complaint, and sometimes, even to convince the customer to upgrade their services. In some companies (McDonalds for instance) the managers are expected to be on the floor and to deal with customers alongside the staff, however many others do not.

I have also seen instances where beratting employees with the belief that that creates a better employee is used. This, once again, is not the case. Granted, if an employee that makes a mistake is not shown the mistake, then the employee is not going to learn. However, by constantly hammering the employee for their mistakes, without actually acknowledging what the employee has done right, and rewarding the employee for what they are doing right, will end up destroying the employee. The same goes with religious institutions. We get so caught up with trying to create better people by hammering them for their mistakes, that we actually are blind to the damage that is being done to that person. ...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Zeus_slayer101 rated it liked it

Achilles in Vietnam is a study of the impact of PTSD on the human personality, using The Iliad to illustrate the impact of this problem with emphasis on the reasons why Vietnam was more traumatic for many veterans than other conflicts have been. This was a good book to read along with The Iliad and helped me bring out some of the underlying themes throughout Homer’s text.
This book contained some very keen observations in it. You just have to fight through all of the boring psychology jargon and ...more

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Nov 19, 2007 Dave rated it it was amazing

This was a great book in conjunction with The Iliad. He compares PTSD symptoms in Viet Vets he counsels to descritions in The Iliad. Very intense depictions of modern PTSD copied verbatim from transcripts with the vets. One man describes leaving his house at night carrying a steak knife, walking down dark alleys hoping someone will threaten him. This is real.

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Jul 14, 2013 Joe Green rated it it was amazing

I was writing a paper about Bill Anderson and his Civil War experience when I stumbled upon this work. Completely changed the direction of the paper, and my relationship with a friend who recently returned from combat in Iraq.

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Aug 16, 2012 Zadignose rated it it was ok

Shelves: 20th-century

This book was somewhat disappointing to me, and I almost abandoned it two-thirds of the way in, but the concluding chapters somewhat redeemed the book.

The basic problem is that the book starts with what seems a very intriguing premise: We can learn a lot about combat trauma and Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder by reading the Iliad, and we can understand the Iliad better by learning about combat trauma, particularly as it affected Vietnam combat veterans. Several interesting ideas are introduced e This book was somewhat disappointing to me, and I almost abandoned it two-thirds of the way in, but the concluding chapters somewhat redeemed the book.

The basic problem is that the book starts with what seems a very intriguing premise: We can learn a lot about combat trauma and Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder by reading the Iliad, and we can understand the Iliad better by learning about combat trauma, particularly as it affected Vietnam combat veterans. Several interesting ideas are introduced early, and we are led to expect that a lot will be revealed about the specific traumas of some veterans and the results of these traumas. However, when we get to the middle sections of the book, it becomes apparent that the author is not going to provide a whole lot of extra depth in his analysis, that he does not approach his own ideas very critically, and that several short interview excerpts are recycled and returned to without revealing a whole lot more. That is to say, it feels as though the material for a short essay has been puffed out to full-book length without sufficient justification.

In the end, however, the author reveals a lot about the problems relating to combat trauma, and makes a persuasive argument for a need for several changes to protocol, procedure, and culture within the military to help minimize the psychological injuries that result from combat trauma. The book finishes well and has some valid points to make. However, along the road to reaching the end, the analogy of Achilles's experience as representative of the Vietnam vet's experience has kind of fallen by the wayside.

Which suggests that this book might better have been presented as a book on combat trauma and the lessons we should learn from Vietnam vets, including a short introductory essay about Achilles. Along the way, occasional reference back to the case of the Iliad could be made only where it is most apt. And more time, attention, and critical thought could be directed to the topic that this author knows best: the etiology of PTSD and methods for its prevention and treatment.

That would be one way to approach it, but there are many other ways. Unfortunately, the way the author chose did not seem ideal to me. He pushes some points were they don't seem persuasive, and tries to force a fit where it doesn't always work. Particularly inapt is the author's attempt to contrast the different religions of the heroes of the Iliad and of the American soldiers in Vietnam, and drawing conclusions about how this affects the traumatic impact of loss. It just seems the author is speculating, but not so convincingly.

One example of a chapter ending in a muddle is Chapter 6, which approaches the topic of why it is wrong to dehumanize the enemy, with real-life examples from Vietnam and the Pacific War of WWII, but then a complaint about how teachers incorrectly teach the lessons of the Iliad is shoehorned in and the point that the chapter was building up to seems lost... and he didn't even bother to mention what he would consider the right way to teach the lessons of the Iliad. He manages to get in a little barb directed at "hostile biblical propaganda against pagan cultures" too. I mean, I get it, we shouldn't dehumanize the enemy, but the pieces seem lumped together, not cohesive.

Another assertion that stands out as false is this: "Everyone knows that people debate whether God exists, but no one questions the benevolent character of this possible God, if he does exist. Questioning his goodness simply does not enter the mind."

And here I find a lack of critical depth: The author deals with the effects on memory and emotion that arise from combat trauma. He manages to talk about the authority of memory over the veteran, how inescapable memories may arise that are charged with inescapable emotional intensity, and also the effect of having memories that are completely devoid of emotional content where it would be natural to be emotional. But I had to ask, is it legitimate to claim that intensely emotional memories (in certain patients) and detached memories without emotion (in other patients) are both elements of the same condition?

In one of the notes that actually brings attention to a somewhat controversial claim, the author comments on his assertion that a berserk soldier enters into an isolating state that divorces him entirely from all community with the living. The end-note points out that there is some overlap in the kind of behavior witnessed in an isolated berserk individual and the behavior of mob violence, and he concludes, "The exact relationship between the two, and particularly whether the postfrenzy consequences are similar, deserve serious study." Well, yeah, perhaps. Or perhaps this points to a flaw in the author's thinking. Berserking may not be a strictly isolating phenomenon if it is also witnessed in mobs.

Another question that was not resolved: If betrayal of what is right and the death of a dear friend are major components in the etiology of PTSD, and we conclude this because all PTSD patients from Vietnam report experiences of betrayal and loss... well, what about the veterans without PTSD? What if we determined that such experiences as betrayal of what is right, and the loss of a close friend in combat, were near-universal experiences of ALL combat veterans, and not just the ones with PTSD? I.e., what if what we're really analyzing here is what went wrong with Vietnam rather than what are the root causes of combat-PTSD, and we're confusing one for the other?

These questions do not in any way invalidate the author's claims. They simply pose a challenge which the book did not answer. The author should have addressed some of these topics to provide the kind of depth that would reward a full reading of his book.

And yet... and yet... I did come away feeling I know more about PTSD, the vet's experience, the consequences of betrayal and berserking, the value of grief and respect for the dead, the necessity of granting one's enemy the status of humanity, the traumatic effects of atrocity on the perpetrator as well as the victim, and I'm at least partially persuaded that Homer's Iliad reflects a true understanding of the combat veteran's experience. So the book did deliver well enough. ...more

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Aug 11, 2021 Dorthe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: greek, war, non-fiction, america, history, audiobook, psychology, heroes, military, vietnam

I've read the Iliad multiple times and taught parts of it on several occasions. The comparisons to modern soldiers in combat situations brings new life and immediacy to the ancient characters and their actions.

The reader should be aware, though, that Shay in his interpretation of the Iliad in an historical context regards 'Homer' as the single author of a unified text, a bard living in the 8th century BCE; thus he explains, e.g., the immediate deaths on the battlefield (as opposed to drawn-out ...more

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May 25, 2022 Alexandra rated it really liked it

This book is emotionally very difficult, but as the author points out, we owe it to these combat veterans, especially those from Vietnam, to listen, and to do better by them in every single possible way. War is traumatic for everyone involved, and as a society we have failed our soldiers in nearly every conceivable way.

Shay accurately points out that the Iliad is a tragedy- it’s a war story, and a story about the tragedy of Achilles and the undoing of his moral character. We typically see Achil ...more

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Oct 26, 2016 Emily Murphy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-for-school

Note: All of these ratings are based on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best.

Writing Quality: 7
Literary criticism and medical nonfiction can be some of the most boring books on the market. Not so with this one. It's written at an accessible level. It is rather dry, befitting its genre, but definitely makes apt comparisons and keeps a good balance between example and explanation.

Setting: 7
Usually nonfiction books don't have a setting, but this one paints such a vivid picture of culture that I consi ...more

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May 19, 2021 Kelsey rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary, nonfiction, war-combat-ptsd

4.5

". . . the Iliad can be legitimately read as a text concerning the human experience of combat."

Great read for anyone interested in PTSD/combat trauma, what causes it, how it affects soldiers, and what is at stake when we go to war. This is also a good companion piece for those interested in how PTSD plays a role in the story of The Iliad, particularly for Achilles’ character. Reading “The Iliad” with an understanding of combat trauma adds much more context to the story in my opinion.

Keep in ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: assigned-reading, war, 1-owned

Shay's account of PTSD among Vietnam veterans is eye-opening to the horrors faced by soldiers both during and after the war. His juxtaposition of quotes from his patients and lines from The Illiad are well done and includes insightful analysis of the two. I found a frightening similarity between many of the Vietnam experiences and those of the recent wars in the Middle East. The military has learned, since Vietnam, to drastically curtail what the media can show of the war. In recent wars, this s ...more

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Sep 12, 2021 Julie rated it liked it

Great information and personal accounts of combat PTSD, but the information is slightly outdated due to the publication date (1994). The use of DSM III-R diagnostic criteria was appropriate for the year of publication, but is now outdated. Those using this book as a resource need to look up the diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the DSM 5.

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Nov 09, 2019 Jon Thompson rated it really liked it

We enjoy scant few opportunities to read our recent history in the light of more ancient examples. This pairing of Vietnam combat experience with the narrative of The Iliad is a wonderful exercise. I hope for more interrelation of the classics to come.

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Apr 07, 2018 Elizabeth Arnold rated it liked it

I feel like this book needs an up-front disclaimer. While it is fair and accurate to describe the book as an interesting academic comparison of the the experience of soldiers in the Illiad (though the caveat must be added: the experience *as related by Homer*) and modern-day soldiers in Vietnam, as well as an argument for a particular framework to understand the 'failure mode' of humans under extreme wartime stress, there are also moments of 'throw you entirely out of the book' revulsion while r I feel like this book needs an up-front disclaimer. While it is fair and accurate to describe the book as an interesting academic comparison of the the experience of soldiers in the Illiad (though the caveat must be added: the experience *as related by Homer*) and modern-day soldiers in Vietnam, as well as an argument for a particular framework to understand the 'failure mode' of humans under extreme wartime stress, there are also moments of 'throw you entirely out of the book' revulsion while reading.

But be prepared for racist and dehumanizing quotations, as well as graphic descriptions of death. That said- I don't think any of it is gratuitous. The book is primarily about psychology of soldiers in wartime, attempting to understand them probably *should* be jarring.

One love, one hate:

I loved the framework for understanding the contraction of social circle that results from stress. Strong examples both from the Illiad and modern experience showing how a person’s ‘tribe’ becomes both more sharply defined and contracts under wartime conditions. Also interesting and practical ideas for how those conditions might be changed to prevent the social isolation and resulting socially unbound behavior of some soldiers.

I hated the argument that demonization and dehumanization of the enemy is a Judeo-Muslim-Christian phenomenon. (Although I appreciate that the author includes Muslim in this grouping, what he seems to actually mean is Abrahamic religion. And then he proceeds to use only a Christian interpretation of good and evil, so my appreciation is muted.) The biblical passages he sites to bolster his ‘the enemy is animalistic’ argument seem to do nothing of the kind, and he undercuts own his argument by referencing the wartime propaganda of the Japanese, who are definitely not culturally Abrahamic and have no problem demonizing and dehumanizing the enemy. Then, he begins the next chapter with an offhand comment that Homer’s audience would have been descended from both sides of the Illiad conflict… which would *entirely* explain why the Illiad contains so little of the demonizing/dehumanizing language we have come to expect of soldiers in wartime!

Overall, a good read for anyone with an interest in psychology, history, and war. Would be a good discussion book paired with either the Illiad (duh) or On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman. ...more

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May 14, 2019 Hank Hoeft rated it it was amazing

This book is more about Vietnam than it is about the Iliad, the story of the "Wrath of Achilles." That is, the book uses the story of Achilles and the fall of Troy to explain the experience of thousands of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. More immediate to me, it specifically explores the phenomenon of post-traumatic stress disorder, and why it manifests itself in some but not in others. The author's thesis is that PTSD isn't just from enduring a stressful situation--in Vietnam, it was most ...more

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Mar 26, 2019 Ericwillard added it

Traumatic

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Aug 16, 2019 Daniel rated it really liked it

Terrific book

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May 23, 2020 Lucy Pearlman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, classical

Incredibly compassionate and moving.

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Sep 09, 2011 Steve Woods rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ptsd, favorites, vietnam-war

This is a really interesting and valuable book. The author is a classicist, who is very familiar with Homer's Iliad dealing with the Trojan wars, an a psychiatrist who has had extensive experience dealing with Vietnam veterans who suffer from chronic combat related ptsd, (as I do). It has been very difficult to work my way through the effects of my war experience on my psyche and as a result on my life. There have been many admissions to veterans' facilities and many hours of work with psycholog This is a really interesting and valuable book. The author is a classicist, who is very familiar with Homer's Iliad dealing with the Trojan wars, an a psychiatrist who has had extensive experience dealing with Vietnam veterans who suffer from chronic combat related ptsd, (as I do). It has been very difficult to work my way through the effects of my war experience on my psyche and as a result on my life. There have been many admissions to veterans' facilities and many hours of work with psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors. None seemed to do me much good from my point of view, simply because they did not understand what they were dealing with nor how to treat the veterans concerned. Ultimately anything I have been able to achieve in developing ways to manage my life have been down to me.

In that process I have become convinced that it is the deconstruction of the sense of self that leads to the damage of the soul so evident with Vietnam ( and I have no doubt Afghanistan and Iraq) veterans and this book confirms that view. The author has also thrown light on issues that relate to that deconstruction of the soldier's sense of self that I had not thought of. Through his reference to an ancient Greek battle he has been able to show the commonality of the soldiers' experience and through contrast to point up issues that were fundamental and potent in the mental and emotional trauma inflicted on veterans during the Indo China war.

There were specifics of the American experience that did not relate to Australians who participated because our approach to soldiering was different but the fundamentals remain the same. Primary among these was the sense of betrayal we all felt. Betrayal particularly by our politicians who lied us into war for their own political ends and by a wider society which just dismissed our service as inconsequential at best and as somehow morally flawed at worst. This book should be mandated reading for anyone involved with veterans who suffer in this way. ...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Cameron rated it it was amazing

I picked this up after hearing Jonathan Shay give a presentation in Washington. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Shay has used a brilliant medium for discussing the foundations of PTSD in combat veterans, interpreting Achilles’ actions in the Iliad as a manifestation of severe psychological trauma resulting from the death of his friend and foster brother Patroklos, made worse by Agamenon’s disrespectful seizure of Briseis. Shay argues that PTSD results from a violation of “what’s right” foll ...more

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May 24, 2010 Kelly rated it it was amazing

This book is strong antidotal medicine for those who are prone to generalize about what makes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a universal phenomenon among afflicted combat veterans, rather than a conflict-specific condition. The war in Vietnam, like all wars, was universal in this respect: the ways it destroyed lives were as unique as the lives it destroyed. Jonathan Shay explores these specifics by comparing them to the descriptions of combat trauma poetically rendered in Homer's epic of ...more

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Sep 24, 2015 Holly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

This is a somewhat difficult book to review, but I would go so far as to say this is an absolute must-read for understanding combat trauma. The Achilles argument was enlightening because it contextualized war within the scope of thousands of years of history and thousands of years of soldiering. Shay's treatment of the morally wounded is quite respectful and profoundly thoughtful. The book is peppered with the raw experience of combat survivors, so it is sometimes difficult to read; however, thi ...more

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Aug 07, 2008 Beth rated it really liked it

I recently accepted a fellowship in the treatment of PTSD among combat veterans and decided to read Dr. Shay's book in preparation for this position. But first, I read The Illiad, upon which Shay bases his book (I recommend this before you read Achilles in Vietnam so that you can compare your take on the classic to Shay's). Basically, Shay is considering the traumas endured by Vietnam (and other combat) veterans within the context of Homer's classic. He effectively compares and contrasts the cur ...more

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Jun 04, 2013 Colin rated it really liked it

Because of this book, I am more alive to the *Iliad*, and the truths it tells about war. But what stays with me most from *Achilles in Vietnam* are the individual narratives of suffering and loss. In the last days I have thought constantly of one man's tender description of his "goofy" friend, the meal they'd planned to share, and how in the next moment that friend "disappeared" on a mine. There is a profound analysis of human experience-- of how much friendship means, and how devastating a stro ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Angie rated it it was ok

Synopsis: "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."

My Review: I have been a huge fan of The Iliad since reading it in college and I have tried to ...more

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About Jonathan Shay

Jonathan Shay

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Books by Jonathan Shay

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“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.” — 5 likes

“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.” — 5 likes

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