Battleland

Could PTSD Really Be Post-Traumatic Soul Disorder?

  • Share
  • Read Later

U.S. soldiers on patrol in Iraq / Army photo

Fascinating piece in Miller-McCune, a new and valued journal that asks tough questions, even if it can’t always come up with the answers. In Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls, writer Diane Silver peers into soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and suggests something else may be amiss:

What sometimes happens in war may more accurately be called a moral injury — a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality and relationship to society. In short, a threat in a solder’s life.

It’s an interesting notion, one that rings at least partially true based on some of the conversations I’ve had with vets.