Special Collections

Soul Repair

by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini

The first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on veterans, their families, and their communities.

Although veterans make up only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they account for an alarming 20 percent of all suicides. And though treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has undoubtedly alleviated suffering and allowed many service members returning from combat to transition to civilian life, the suicide rate for veterans under thirty has been increasing.

Research by Veterans Administration health professionals and veterans' own experiences now suggest an ancient but unaddressed wound of war may be a factor: moral injury. This deep-seated sense of transgression includes feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs.

Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal the damage inflicted on soldiers' consciences.

In Soul Repair, the authors tell the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan--Camillo "Mac" Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey, and Camilo Mejía--who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually helped soldiers with their moral injuries.

Soul Repair will help veterans, their families, members of their communities, and clergy understand the impact of war on the consciences of healthy people, support the recovery of moral conscience in society, and restore veterans to civilian life. When a society sends people off to war, it must accept responsibility for returning them home to peace.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Invisible Wounds of War

by Marguerite Guzman Bouvard

There’s no real homecoming for many of our veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may go through the motions of daily life in their hometowns, but the terrible sights and sounds of war are still fresh in their minds.

This empathic, inside look into the lives of our combat veterans reveals the lingering impact that the longest wars in our nation’s history continue to have on far too many of our finest young people. Basing her account on numerous interviews with veterans and their families, the author examines the factors that have made these recent conflicts especially trying.

A major focus of the book is the extreme duress that is a daily part of a soldier’s life in combat zones with no clear frontlines or perimeters. Having to cope with unrecognizable enemies in the midst of civilian populations and attacks from hidden weapons like improvised explosive devices exacts a heavy toll. Compounding the problem is the all-volunteer nature of our armed forces, which often demands multiple deployments of enlistees. This results in frequent cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and families disrupted by the long absence of one and sometimes both parents.

The author also discusses the lack of connectedness between civilian society and military personnel, leading to inadequate healthcare for many veterans. This deficiency has been highlighted by the urgent need to treat traumatic brain injuries in survivors of explosions and the high veteran suicide rate.

Bouvard concludes on a positive note by discussing some of the surprising and encouraging ways that the chasm between civilian and military life is being bridged to help reintegrate our returning soldiers. For veterans, their families, and especially for civilians unaware of how much our soldiers have endured, The Invisible Wounds of War is important reading.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Trauma and Recovery

by Judith Lewis Herman

When Trauma and Recovery was first published in 1992, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman's volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims. In a new afterword, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited and explains how the issues surrounding the topic have shifted within the clinical community and the culture at large.

Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research in domestic violence as well as on the vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism.

The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame, arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context. Meticulously documented and frequently using the victims' own words as well as those from classic literary works and prison diaries, Trauma and Recovery is a powerful work that will continue to profoundly impact our thinking.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Shadows of War

by Efrat Ben-Ze'Ev and Ruth Ginio and Jay Winter

Silence lies between forgetting and remembering. This book explores how different societies have constructed silences to enable men and women to survive and make sense of the catastrophic consequences of armed conflict. Using a range of disciplinary approaches, it examines the silences that have followed violence in twentieth-century Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. These essays show that silence is a powerful language of remembrance and commemoration and a cultural practice with its own rules. This broad-ranging book discloses the universality of silence in the ways we think about war through examples ranging from the Spanish Civil War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Armenian Genocide and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Bringing together scholarship on varied practices in different cultures, this book breaks new ground in the vast literature on memory, and opens up new avenues of reflection and research on the lingering aftermath of war.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Memory, War and Trauma

by Nigel C. Hunt

Many millions of people are affected by the trauma of war. Psychologists have a good understanding of how experiences of war impact on memory but the significance of external environmental influences is often disregarded. Memory, War and Trauma focuses on our understanding of the psychosocial impact of war in its broadest sense. Nigel C. Hunt argues that, in order to understand war trauma, it is critical to develop an understanding not only of the individual perspective but also of how societal and cultural factors impact on the outcome of an individual's experience.

This is a compelling book which helps demonstrate why some people suffer from post-traumatic stress when other people don't, and how narrative understanding is important to the healing process. Its multi-disciplinary perspective will enable a deeper understanding of both individual traumatic stress and the structures of memory.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

The PTSD Breakthrough

by Frank Lawlis

We are facing a hidden and growing epidemic. More than a million veterans and everyday citizens have been affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of a traumatic event or personal experience. And until now, there has been little understanding of how the disorder truly takes hold and how to reverse its destruction. Finally, a breakthrough approach has been discovered.

Previously PTSD was treated as a psychiatric disorder only, but new scientific research shows that biological factors play just as an important of a role, specifically brain and soft-tissue damage underlying the root causes of the disorder. The PTSD Breakthrough is the first book to describe the true causes of PTSD and provide an effective program for overcoming the disorder. There is hope.

Through the research conducted by Dr. Lawlis and his colleagues, for the first time those who suffer from PTSD, as well as their families and loved ones, will discover that this disorder can be treated and healed, and that our veterans and all who suffer from PTSD can regain true peace in their lives.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

The Way of the Wound

by Robert Grant

Countless victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, violent crime, rape, war, life-threatening illness and natural disaster struggle with the impact of their injuries. Former ways of making sense have been injured or destroyed. The lives of many are without meaning or direct. Unless helped to integrate the significance of their traumatic wounds into more comprehensive approaches to self, life and God victims run the risk of addiction, wasted potential, numerous psychological and physical problems, as well as commitments to distorted spiritualities. Victims of trauma are asked to embark on a path of healing that mystics, shamans and mythic heroes have been walking for thousands of years. The only difference is that the path is contemporary and, therefore, potentially more conscious. Trauma provides a modern access to this spiritual path and can initiate powerful experiences of conversion. If properly supported and accompanied trauma has the power to transform all facets of reality.

The Way of the Wound lays out a path of healing, along with the central issues that survivors encounter at every crucial point along the way. This work offers direction to every victim of trauma wanting to move to the next level of healing.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Invisible Wounds of War

by Terri Tanielian and Lisa H. Jaycox and Grant N. Marshall and M. Audrey Burnam and Terry L. Schell

Summarizes key findings and recommendations from Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery (Tanielian and Jaycox [Eds.], MG-720-CCF, 2008), a comprehensive study of the post-deployment health-related needs associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, and traumatic brain injury among veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Courage After Fire

by Suzanne Best and Paula Domenici and Keith Armstrong

The bravery displayed by our soldiers at war is commonly recognized. However, often forgotten is the courage required by veterans when they return home and suddenly face reintegration into their families, workplaces, and communities. Authored by three mental health professionals with many years of experience counseling veterans, Courage After Fire provides strategies and techniques for this challenging journey home. Courage After Fire offers soldiers and their families a comprehensive guide to dealing with the all-too-common repercussions of combat duty, including posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. It details state-of-the-art treatments for these difficulties and outlines specific ways to improve couple and family relationships. It also offers tips on areas such as rejoining the workforce and reconnecting with children.

Date Added: 05/25/2017