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Nam Vet: Making Peace With Your Past
Although the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, it still rages in the lives of thousands of veterans and their families. This book not only tells why so many Vietnam veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, emotional numbing, and broken relationships, but it offers solid answers and gives hope. It reveals the way to peace on the subject of post-traumatic stress.
- GenresNonfiction
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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March 4, 2017
As a former Vietnam veteran, Chuck Dean has endured the debilitating challenges of confronting his PTSD. Now that he has been able to gain control over the anguish of his past, he has dedicated himself to helping other veterans find peace in their lives. Nam Vet is a powerful book and an invaluable resource. It is both an inspiring testimony of Dean’s courage and candor to share reflections of his darkest days and an important work that examines the psychological difficulties continuing to plague Vietnam veterans. The book is riveting in how it examines the sources and depths of PTSD and how it offers catharsis and optimism for veterans dealing with the mental trauma of their painful pasts and learning to believe in a hopeful future. While I read Dean’s journey and followed his detailed explanations about the horrors of the war, I kept thinking how if someone in need of help for PTSD has this book, he or she will feel empowered to know that hope is possible. Dean takes his readers through the darkness and shows them how to find the light. In the vast literature on Vietnam, Nam Vet is an exceptional book that can aid any veteran suffering from the aftermath of war.
December 31, 2021
Disclosure: I'm not a Veteran, and I work at the VA. Views in this review are solely my own.
Gifted to me by a retiring colleague, himself a Vet, who said he found memoirs and writings by other Veterans more educational than much of his other training. This man was a gifted clinician himself from whom I learned a great deal, and who is sorely missed by colleagues and Veterans alike since he retired.
I assumed this would be a memoir, and Dean does share personal details from his own experiences and those of others he's met, but the book is primarily about the trauma response, what made serving in Vietnam different compared to prior combat theaters, and guidance on how to recover from trauma. His description of the trauma response and Vietnam were very effective - concrete, clear, well-written. This is a quick read and, I imagine, a very good primer on learning what might be going on with you and what might help.
I believe the book begins to lose some authority in how it seems to prize its own approach over others. Nothing wrong with thinking your way is the best, but what's the point in shitting on other roads to recovery that work for countless others? Examples:
1) Dean indicates that "humanistic psychology" doesn't work compared to fellowship with other Veterans, though many of the techniques he suggests for dealing with particular problems with trauma are shared in psychology (peer support, talking through, practices to gain personal insight). A lot of treatment that the VA is group-based, which is one of the key things Dean advocates for through his own organization, as if it's missing elsewhere. A key difference might be that at the VA facilitation happens with a facilitator rather than a trained peer, which could be very important, but this isn't how Dean frames his put-down of psychology.
2) Dean has all-or-nothing views of substance use and medication, stating that if you're using substances to cope you are, quote, "a liar." Lots of people cope using substances, and you can work towards and achieve a moderation goal and still have happiness and success in your life before and after getting there. You can also have a problem with substance use and be completely honest about it with others and yourself; you are not automatically a liar. Dean says that medications to assist with trauma symptoms like anxiety and nightmares are themselves debilitating citing not evidence but only an anecdote of someone who was on four related psychiatric medications. Was this person over-prescribed? Impacted so greatly that the meds were an attempt to help and he would've been worse without them? Were the meds one of the few things keeping him stable? Dean doesn't present a nuanced or full picture.
If medications work for you, take them. If seeing a trained counselor works for you, see one. Of course there are shitty counselors, just as there are shitty peer support specialists, and there are different benefits and barriers to whatever setting you happen to be seeking help through.
Other issues with the book have to do with what I read as the book's advocacy for an organization and religiosity, and another is more clinical. The book doesn't say much on the cover about Point Man Ministries except that Dean was their international director for about 5 years, but by the end it reads very much like a promotional tool for this group, specifically directing readers to seek help through them. Dean's Christianity, and seeking healing through God, is presented in the book as not a way to healing, but the way. When you tell people, with authority, that talking to counselor rather than fellow Vet can't heal you, and that the only path to healing is through Jesus and God, you are needlessly and inaccurately misrepresenting paths of recovery that have worked for countless others. You can start off and remain an atheist and still recover from trauma.
The clinical issue had to do with his discussion of PTSD triggers in the end, in which he specifically recommends using personal practices and enlisting to support from family/friends so that you can learn what your triggers are and "avoid" them. This is incongruent with earlier advice in the book in which he encourages folks to talk about and face anxiety-inducing situations of life that are coming up at home. It's also incongruent with evidence-based trauma treatment, which advises learning to cope with discomfort/anxiety using relaxation techniques before practicing those skills in increasingly triggering scenarios to learn that you can handle them. Sure, you can avoid a 4th of July celebration if the fireworks are going to upset you, and I'm sure Dean is not saying that if you're triggered by the grocery store you shouldn't get groceries any more. There was a huge piece missing in his discussion of responding to triggers.
I am, in truth, an egghead non-combatant who feels, not wrongly, that I am shitting on this recovery-oriented book as I criticize it for shitting on other recovery methods and settings. In truth, I found it a good and educational read, and don't doubt that the book and Dean himself have helped many recover from their experiences. I am not concerned for folks like me who read this book and will be sufficiently thoughtful and appropriately critical of it, taking the helpful bits and leaving the rest behind. I am concerned for readers who are younger, less educated, less experienced, less inclined to be critical of a fellow Veteran's viewpoint, and so come to believe that meds are bad, non-Veteran clinicians are useless, triggers are to be avoided, and that you must accept God/Christ in order to heal.
Gifted to me by a retiring colleague, himself a Vet, who said he found memoirs and writings by other Veterans more educational than much of his other training. This man was a gifted clinician himself from whom I learned a great deal, and who is sorely missed by colleagues and Veterans alike since he retired.
I assumed this would be a memoir, and Dean does share personal details from his own experiences and those of others he's met, but the book is primarily about the trauma response, what made serving in Vietnam different compared to prior combat theaters, and guidance on how to recover from trauma. His description of the trauma response and Vietnam were very effective - concrete, clear, well-written. This is a quick read and, I imagine, a very good primer on learning what might be going on with you and what might help.
I believe the book begins to lose some authority in how it seems to prize its own approach over others. Nothing wrong with thinking your way is the best, but what's the point in shitting on other roads to recovery that work for countless others? Examples:
1) Dean indicates that "humanistic psychology" doesn't work compared to fellowship with other Veterans, though many of the techniques he suggests for dealing with particular problems with trauma are shared in psychology (peer support, talking through, practices to gain personal insight). A lot of treatment that the VA is group-based, which is one of the key things Dean advocates for through his own organization, as if it's missing elsewhere. A key difference might be that at the VA facilitation happens with a facilitator rather than a trained peer, which could be very important, but this isn't how Dean frames his put-down of psychology.
2) Dean has all-or-nothing views of substance use and medication, stating that if you're using substances to cope you are, quote, "a liar." Lots of people cope using substances, and you can work towards and achieve a moderation goal and still have happiness and success in your life before and after getting there. You can also have a problem with substance use and be completely honest about it with others and yourself; you are not automatically a liar. Dean says that medications to assist with trauma symptoms like anxiety and nightmares are themselves debilitating citing not evidence but only an anecdote of someone who was on four related psychiatric medications. Was this person over-prescribed? Impacted so greatly that the meds were an attempt to help and he would've been worse without them? Were the meds one of the few things keeping him stable? Dean doesn't present a nuanced or full picture.
If medications work for you, take them. If seeing a trained counselor works for you, see one. Of course there are shitty counselors, just as there are shitty peer support specialists, and there are different benefits and barriers to whatever setting you happen to be seeking help through.
Other issues with the book have to do with what I read as the book's advocacy for an organization and religiosity, and another is more clinical. The book doesn't say much on the cover about Point Man Ministries except that Dean was their international director for about 5 years, but by the end it reads very much like a promotional tool for this group, specifically directing readers to seek help through them. Dean's Christianity, and seeking healing through God, is presented in the book as not a way to healing, but the way. When you tell people, with authority, that talking to counselor rather than fellow Vet can't heal you, and that the only path to healing is through Jesus and God, you are needlessly and inaccurately misrepresenting paths of recovery that have worked for countless others. You can start off and remain an atheist and still recover from trauma.
The clinical issue had to do with his discussion of PTSD triggers in the end, in which he specifically recommends using personal practices and enlisting to support from family/friends so that you can learn what your triggers are and "avoid" them. This is incongruent with earlier advice in the book in which he encourages folks to talk about and face anxiety-inducing situations of life that are coming up at home. It's also incongruent with evidence-based trauma treatment, which advises learning to cope with discomfort/anxiety using relaxation techniques before practicing those skills in increasingly triggering scenarios to learn that you can handle them. Sure, you can avoid a 4th of July celebration if the fireworks are going to upset you, and I'm sure Dean is not saying that if you're triggered by the grocery store you shouldn't get groceries any more. There was a huge piece missing in his discussion of responding to triggers.
I am, in truth, an egghead non-combatant who feels, not wrongly, that I am shitting on this recovery-oriented book as I criticize it for shitting on other recovery methods and settings. In truth, I found it a good and educational read, and don't doubt that the book and Dean himself have helped many recover from their experiences. I am not concerned for folks like me who read this book and will be sufficiently thoughtful and appropriately critical of it, taking the helpful bits and leaving the rest behind. I am concerned for readers who are younger, less educated, less experienced, less inclined to be critical of a fellow Veteran's viewpoint, and so come to believe that meds are bad, non-Veteran clinicians are useless, triggers are to be avoided, and that you must accept God/Christ in order to heal.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews