Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers
- ISBN-10
- 0199325278
- ISBN-13
- 9780199325276
- Category
- Philosophy
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Nancy Sherman
Description
2.6 million soldiers are currently returning home from war, the greatest number since Vietnam. With an increase in suicides and post-traumatic stress, the military has embraced measures such as resilience training and positive psychology to heal mind as well as body. But the moral dimensions of psychological injuries - guilt, shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged - still elude much treatment. In Afterwar, philosopher Nancy Sherman turns her focus to that challenge.Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's decade of war. Shermanexplores how veterans can go about reawakening their feelings without becoming re-traumatized; how they can replace resentment with trust; and the changes that need to be made by military courts, VA hospitals, and civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war in order for this tohappen. Americans, from politicians on downward, solemnly intone our "sacred obligations" to our veterans. Written with empathy, humanity, and deep insight, Afterwar provides no easy answers for how we can fulfill these obligations, but instead makes the case that the work of healing moral injuries issomething that all of us, not just soldiers and psychologists, must do.
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Other editions
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- 2015-04-08
- 288 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
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