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Soul Repair

Recovering From Moral Injury After War
Mar 25, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Some years ago I was part of a clergy team trying to help churches help vets re-enter society on return from war zones. I wish we had had a book like this as a resource. I'd heard the term "moral injury," but didn't understand it, and since those of us leading the program weren't vets, we really hadn't a clue. The stories these vets tell of their lives both "in country" and when they tried to find some kind of normalcy back home are heartbreaking. Nakshima and her co-author Lettini both experienced moral injury as family members of vets, demonstrating in their lives the ripple effects. One major point of this brief book is that moral injury is not the same as PTSD. The latter is physical, something that happens to the body in war. Moral injury is something that happens to the soul (defined as the core values, no matter where they come from) when a person feels he or she has acted against their own best beliefs. Treatment for the two conditions needs to be different, and the VA isn't making the distinction. While the authors aren't always as clear as I'd like on what should be done, the book is a cry from the heart on how the current system mis-serves vets, especially given the high rate of alcoholism, divorce, and most importantly, suicide among them. A very important book.