This is a very interesting theoretical concept, but what is important to us is to understand that this process of inoculation is exactly what occurs in boot camps and in every other military school worthy of its name. When raw recruits are faced with seemingly sadistic abuse and hardship (which they “escape” through weekend passes and, ultimately, graduation) they are—among many other things—being inoculated against the stresses of combat. Combining an understanding of (a) those factors that cause combat trauma with (b) an understanding of the inoculation process permits us to recognize that
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