Haunted By Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans, by Daryl S. Paulson and Stanley Krippner

This book presents the reader with a bit of a dilemma, at least if that reader is not a combat veteran, yet is concerned enough about PTSD in order to read a book like this. On the one hand, this book is to be praised for seeking to let veterans speak of their harrowing experiences in war with their own voice, as one of the co-writers of this book is himself a trained psychologist and also someone who has dealt with PTSD as a result of his experiences in Vietnam. On the other hand, there is a great deal about this book, even for those who are not troubled by the discussion of PTSD itself, that is troubling. The authors seem to present an eclectic view of treatment that has a special fondness for heathen shamanistic healing for “soul death,” and treatment options that spring from Eastern religion or pagan religious beliefs. Likewise, the authors find themselves engaged in a strong tension between a desire to help soldiers acclimate themselves to a large indifferent and uncaring civilian population that knows little about military affairs and wants less to do with military service [1] and a desire to justify among service members the freedom from “shoulds” and “oughts” that are supposedly so oppressive. The end result is a book that is clearly written with its heart in the right place, but also all kinds of other ulterior motives that are impossible to fully support.

In terms of the contents and organization of the book, there is a clear thematic organization, but the contents have some surprises. After a preface and a very technical introduction on the trade-off between DSM legitimacy and private traumas and individual stories, the book contains twelve chapters and then an epilogue that focuses on the lack of progress over three years after the book had been originally published towards the beginning of the Iraq War. The chapters of the book begin with an overview of trauma and the mind/body before looking at the history of the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD and its phenomenology, before tackling the experiences of reserve soldiers, the problem of coming home from war, preparing for what is to come, civilians at risk, treatment approaches to people in the aftermath of trauma, keys to treating trauma, various alternative approaches the authors favor in treating PTSD, remembrance, and finding strength and meaning while struggling to overcome nightmares and hyperarousal and the other symptoms of this cruel disease. Intermixed with these chapters are a series of dark and cynical poems, mostly by a fellow named Tom Greening [2], which add to the level of darkness and cynicism in the work, which is already at a pretty high level.

Beyond the troublesome religious beliefs, the shallow sort of self-help approach the book has to encouragement, and the casual cynicism about the government on the part of the authors and many of the soldiers who were just punching the timeclock in Iraq, there is a lot about this book that is troublesome about the state of the American military. For one, the military has done a poor job at training reservists with the expectation of possible active military service, as well as with the care of suicidal post-combat veterans. The use of the military as a laboratory for social experimentation has resulted in the widespread view of women as sex objects, leading to high degrees of rape, adding to the trauma of military service for women. As an aside, though, this book follows a lot of writers in annoyingly assuming that only women suffer from rape, something that tends to get my goat. Likewise, there is a lot of trouble in the way that the military has ill-served the idealism of America’s soldiers in its recent military conflicts. There are few conflicts that can sustain idealism, but the way that the United States has gotten involved in wars in recent decades has encouraged cynicism and reduced morale, and that certainly has not helped the way our armies have fought, or how they have recovered once they went back home.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/fundamental-belief-14-on-military-service-and-war/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/a-republic-of-ingratitude/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/book-review-digest-of-the-divine-law/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/the-curious-connection-betweenjane-austen-and-military-history/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/welcomed-home-again-the-sad-fate-of-svetozar-boroevic/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/a-week-to-remember-a-week-to-forget/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/every-war-has-two-losers/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/give-us-your-sons-and-daughters/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/neither-shall-they-learn-war-anymore-the-military-historian-and-the-millennium/

[2] See, for example:

“To Recruits” (p. 33)

You are pawns–
don’t you understand that?
It’s a game
and you aren’t worth much,
but you can be used
strategically.
Presidents and generals need
obedient pawns.
You will get deployed, maneuvered,
maybe sacrificed
on a dusty foreign chess board.
If that makes you feel good–
patriotic, macho, or whatever–
go for it.
You’ll come back with some honors,
souvenirs, ghosts,
or maybe in a box.

– Tom Greening

“Falluja Corpse” (p.134)

I will lie here,
buried below Falluja
for a long time.
Being dead,
I am in no hurry.
You can collect those other corpses,
rebuild the city above me
and proclaim victory.

I watched with amusement
as they used a grappling hook
to drag Ali away
because they were afraid
he was booby-trapped.
They don’t know the real meaning
of that word.
They don’t know how much explosive
I have packed inside me.

I am a patient man
with a long memory
and nothing else to do.
Even from this awkward position
I will conceive many children
who will honor their father.

–Tom Greening