SBAND Seminar Materials 2013 Free Ethics: Echoes of War The Combat Veteran | Page 4

psychological
 casualties.

 In
 fact,
 PTSD
 has
 been
 a
 constant
 side
 effect
 of
 war
 for
 as
 long
 as
  soldiers
 have
 been
 sent
 into
 combat.

A. Combat
 Trauma
 in
 the
 Greek
 Classics,
 Modern
 Literature,
 and
  Cinema

Some
 of
 the
 first
 known
 chronicles
 of
 the
 psychological
 costs
 of
 war
 are
 found
 in

Greek
 literary
 classics.

 Written
 approximately
 3,000
 years
 ago,
 Homer’s
 Iliad
 and
 Odyssey
  richly
 detail
 the
 effects
 of
 war
 on
 soldiers’
 psyches
 and
 souls.

 Two
 recent
 books,
 Achilles
 in
  Vietnam
 and
 Odysseus
 in
 America,
 by
 Dr.
 Jonathan
 Shay,
 M.D.,
 draw
 insightful
 parallels
  between
 the
 trauma
 suffered
 by
 Homers’
 characters
 and
 that
 of
 modern
 day
 combat
  veterans.5
  The
 Iliad
 tells
 the
 story
 of
 the
 great
 warrior,
 Achilles,
 and
 his
 psychological
  unraveling
 during
 the
 Trojan
 War.

 Dr.
 Shay
 notes
 that
 Achilles’
 profound
 grief
 over
 the
 loss
  of
 a
 close
 comrade,
 his
 subsequent
 “berserker”
 rage
 as
 he
 mutilates
 the
 bodies
 of
 his
  enemies,
 and
 his
 eventual
 self-­?destructive
 unraveling
 closely
 parallel
 the
 experiences
 of
  many
 of
 his
 Vietnam
 veteran
 patients.
  The
 Odyssey
 picks
 up
 at
 the
 end
 of
 the
 Trojan
 War
 and
 follows
 the
 often-­?criminal
  adventures
 of
 another
 traumatized
 Trojan
 War
 veteran,
 Odysseus
 (aka
 “Ulysses”)
 as
 he
  makes
 his
 way
 home
 to
 Greece.

 Along
 the
 way,
 notes
 Dr.
 Shay,
 Odysseus
 and
 his
 men
 raid
  and
 then
 drunkenly
 pillage
 the
 city
 of
 Ismarus,
 battle
 drug
 addiction
 in
 “Lotus
 Land,”
 and
  rob
 the
 Cyclops,
 among
 other
 misadventures.

 Once
 he
 reaches
 home,
 Odysseus
 commits
 a
  massive
 act
 of
 domestic
 violence,
 slaying
 dozens
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