tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134533972010981122.post413562339248063314..comments2024-03-28T17:46:07.937+00:00Comments on The Edithorial: What the Greeks knew about Combat TraumaEdith Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02518971064140009711noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134533972010981122.post-34354877023275571142013-08-25T09:29:20.649+01:002013-08-25T09:29:20.649+01:00Maybe some will be familiar with the works of Dr. ...Maybe some will be familiar with the works of Dr. Jonathan Shay:<br />(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Shay)<br />"Jonathan Shay is a doctor and clinical psychiatrist. [...]<br />His early medical work was laboratory research on central nervous system cells in and after strokes, but after suffering a stroke himself and hard times thereafter, he joined United States Department of Veterans' Affairs outpatient clinic in Boston, MA. While he worked there, in his words, "[t]he veterans simply kidnapped [him]," and his work with them "utterly redirected [his] life."<br />With this, in 1987, he shifted from neuropathology to the still-developing study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He has written two books on the nature and treatment of PTSD, <i>Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character</i> and <i>Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming</i>, which discuss the nature of the condition by reference to the experiences of American veterans of the Vietnam War, and the experiences depicted in the Iliad and the Odyssey.<br />He is a passionate advocate of improved mental health treatment for soldiers, and more vigorous effort to prevent PTSD, and has cited classical Greek theater and the collective mourning described in the Iliad as possible precedents. He writes of "the communalization of trauma."<br /><br />You can hear Dr. Shay talk about PTSD and his notion of <i>Moral Injury</i> in a podcast intitled <i>Learning About Combat Trauma From Homer's Iliad</i><br /><br />http://mainehumanities.org/podcast/podpress_trac/web/1223/0/mhc-124-shay.mp3Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00470640545903985756noreply@blogger.com