Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xii, 191 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. In two decades of clinical work with Vietnam veterans, the author sought to understand a seeming paradox about his patients: even veterans being treated for post traumatic stress disorder often still felt attracted to the danger and violence of combat and killing. How this could be possible became a central focus of his work and thought, as he looked to veterans' stories and within himself for pieces of the human puzzle. This book is the result of that exploration. In it, the author confronts a dark side of human psychology with sensitivity and depth, revealing startling truths about the allure of violence. Among the topics he addresses are the ways in which the concept of war shapes boys' lives from an early age, what happens when killing becomes a job, and how memories of the thrill of combat affect a soldier after the war is over. He probes the aftermath of September 11, including the historic implications of women's experience in the military. A veteran himself, the author weaves together insights from his own clinical and military experience and from the moving narratives of former soldiers with his thoughtful analysis of readings from world literature to answer tough questions such as: What does our attraction to killing mean for the future of war and civilization? What implications does it have for the way we understand peacetime violence in our society?

Subject

1. Posttraumatisches Stresssyndrom
2. Vietnamkrieg
3. Warfare
4. Post-traumatic stress disorder
5. USA
6. Case studies
7. Social Values
8. Violence > psychology
9. 1961 - 1975
10. War and society
11. United States
12. Vietnam War (1961-1975)
13. Combat Disorders
14. Veterans > Psychology > Case studies
15. Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > United States
16. Men > psychology
17. Veteran
18. War > Psychological aspects > Case studies

Genre/Form

1. Case studies.

Contents

1. Boys : playing at war -- Brothers and comrades -- Killing : getting the job done -- Killers : bred in the bone -- Counterforce : facing terror -- Damage : war's awful aftermath -- Myths and perceptions -- The wonder of war -- Sex and the soldier -- Women and war.

Owning institution

1. Columbia University Libraries

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-186) and index.