Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our SoldiersMovies like American Sniper and The Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service in a war zone. The moral dimensions of their psychological injuries--guilt, shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged-elude conventional treatment. Georgetown philosophy professor Nancy Sherman turns her focus to these moral injuries in Afterwar. She argues that psychology and medicine alone are inadequate to help with many of the most painful questions veterans are bringing home from war. Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of experience 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 longest wars. She explores 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 in order for this to happen-by military courts, VA hospitals, and the civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war. 2.6 million soldiers are currently returning home from war, the greatest number since Vietnam. Facing 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. Sherman argues that some psychological wounds of war need a kind of healing through moral understanding that is the special province of philosophical engagement and listening. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
Chapter 1 Reborn But Dead | 7 |
Chapter 2 Dont Just Tell Me Thank You | 23 |
Chapter 3 Theyre My Baby Birds | 57 |
Chapter 4 Recovering Lost Goodness | 77 |
Chapter 5 Rebuilding Trust | 105 |
Chapter 6 Hope After War | 133 |
Chapter 7 Homecoming | 155 |
Where They Are Now | 163 |
Acknowledgments | 169 |
Notes | 173 |
213 | |
Credits | 227 |
229 | |
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Afghanistan Afterwar Air Force Alysha Améry anger another’s Aristotle Aristotle 1984 Army aspirations Baffico betrayal blame buddy call and response chapter civilian cognitive combat command demand deployment discussion Donna emotions empathy enemy engagement epistemic eudaimonia expectation expressed Fallujah fantasy feel felt Fiebrandt Georgetown goodwill gratitude guilt guys healing homecoming hope imperfect duties interviewed investment involves Iraq jus in bello kind Lalo Lalo’s Macnamara 2012 Marine Marja medevac mental military moral injury moral repair moral responsibility Neoptolemus Nicomachean Ethics noncombatants normative notion one’s oneself Panyagua person Philoctetes Philoctetes’s philosopher posttraumatic stress progressor psychological reactive attitudes resentment resilience role sage self-empathy Seneca sense service members sexual assault shame shared Sherman soldiers someone Sophocles Sophocles 2007b Stephanie Stephanie Wilson Stoic strict liability suicide talk Thank tion trauma troops trust trustworthiness veterans Vietnam vulnerability war’s warrior women wounds