THE WAR
WITHIN
Charles Lewallen
PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
Charlie Craig
HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
of stress hormones.
But many therapists find
such cookie-cutter approaches
unworkable, says Platoni, the
Army combat trauma psychologist and co-editor of a
forthcoming book, War Trauma and Its Wake. Her book
explores the broader impact
of combat experience, which
she believes includes issues of
self-identity, alienation, disillusionment with the U.S. government and its leaders, and
damage to religious and spiritual beliefs, or “moral injury.”
That term is a hot button for
many Vietnam vets.
“A lot of guys come back angry with God — how could the
God we understood and were
raised to believe in let this war
stuff go on?” says Weidman,
who served with the Americal Division. “We witnessed
and participated in so much
horror, that was in such violence with the value structure
in which we were raised. It’s
a miracle people come back
as together as they are. The
whole concept of spiritual or
moral pain goes beyond traditional psychotherapy.”
What worked for Natasha