Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterAn original and groundbreaking book that examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In this moving, dazzlingly creative book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. A classic of war literature that has as much relevance as ever in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a “transcendent literary adventure” (The New York Times) and “clearly one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam War” (Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried). |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - David.Alfred.Sarkies - LibraryThingThis is one of the toughest books that I have read to date and pretty much halfway through the chapter on grief I found that my brain had been reduced to slush. Now, I have never been to war and never ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Netherto - LibraryThingA fascinating examination of the PTSD that affected the efforts of Homer's Odysseus to return home from the 10-year-long Trojan War, seen through the eyes of veterans of modern American conflicts ... Read full review
Contents
Betrayal of UWhats Right | 5 |
Soldiers rageThe beginning | 20 |
Achilles character before his psychological injuries | 28 |
Combat is a condition of captivity and enslavement | 35 |
Portrait of Patroklos | 44 |
Guilt and Wrongful Substitution | 69 |
B e r s e r k 7 7 | 77 |
Dishonoring the Enemy | 103 |
50ldiers Luck and Gods Will | 137 |
Reclaiming the Iliad s Gods as a Metaphor | 149 |
Homeric irony and gods love | 160 |
The official diagnostic criteria for PTSD of the American | 166 |
Healing and Tragedy | 183 |
Conclusion | 195 |
War is not an industrial process | 204 |
| 233 | |
Other editions - View all
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character Jonathan Shay No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Agamémnon Aias Akhaians Akhilleus American soldiers ancient armor army battle berserk betrayal of what's body Carl von Clausewitz chapter character civilian combat PTSD combat soldiers combat trauma commander culture dead death Diomédés emotion enemy experience feel fight fire fucking gods Gooks Gregory Nagy grief griefwork guilt guys healing hear Hektor helicopter Homer Homeric warriors honor human Iliad Judith Lewis Herman killed lives luck mean memory Menelaos mental military modern moral moral luck motherfuckers mourning narrative National Vietnam Veterans never Odysseus officers pain Patroklos Patroklos's Paul Fussell person political Priam psychological injuries PTSD rage revenge Robert Fagles shit social special comrade suffering survival survivor tell terror thémis thing tion Tragedy trauma Traumatic Stress Troy unit University Press veter Veterans Readjustment Study Vietnam combat veterans Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Vietnam War Vietnamese weapons what's right words wounded Y'know York Zeus
Bibliographic information
| Title | Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character |
| Author | Jonathan Shay |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2010 |
| ISBN | 1439124922, 9781439124925 |
| Length | 272 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Military / General History / Military / Veterans History / Military / Vietnam War Psychology / General Psychology / Psychopathology / Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Psychology / Psychotherapy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |