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"We are discovering that the mental toll may be greater than any effect of war," Professor Figley told IOL. |
WASHINGTON – While Americans are scratching their heads about the motives behind the Fort Hood deadly shooting, including possible religious and political ones, leading mental health and war experts are also pointing the finger at combat trauma running rampant in the military and burdening even its therapists.
"There is some evidence that the Major was -- at least in part-- negatively affected by his caring for the psychologically wounded; that he loved his country and felt the emotional pain of his patients who he saw, like him, serving the country they love," Professor Charles Figley of Tulane University in New Orleans, a mental health and trauma specialist, told IslamOnline.net.
Some 13 people were killed and 30 wounded Thursday in Fort Hood military base, Texas, when Major Nidal Hasan, a Muslim army psychiatrist, allegedly opened fire at fellow soldiers.
Hasan, who spent six years as a therapist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, was shot and taken into custody.
While his motives are still being investigated, experts believe the key word in the incident should be trauma, or what they call "Secondary Traumatic Stress," rather than religion or politics.
They contend that Hasan, while treating victims of intense trauma, worked in a high-risk and emotionally taxing field.
"It’s the tension inside of practitioners with all the pain and suffering they see," said Professor Figley, who defined the STS ten years ago.
"They become withdrawn and they are not even allowed to tell other people, so they have to keep it to themselves. It’s like trying to heal your own wound alone," he noted.
"We have found evidence of such negative consequences among social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, chaplains, nurses, and others who work directly with those who suffer from trauma, including war trauma.
"They, in turn, are vulnerable secondarily."
Dr. Laurie Pearlman, clinical psychologist and member of the American Psychological Association, agrees.
"In order to understand people, in order to help them recover, one must be willing to enter into their worlds. The world of trauma survivors can include shock, grief, rage, terror, and pain," Pearlman told IOL.
"The role of the psychotherapist is to open himself or herself to this pain."
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| Benedict believes the military and the country are in "a climate of denial" regarding the price of endless wars. |
War Toll
Helen Benedict, professor of journalism at Columbia University, agrees that while it is hard to know for sure Hasan's state of mind, it is clear that he came under the strain of war while out of the combat field.
"Hasan and others like him must listen to these ghastly stories of killing, of gruesome bodies, of remorse and anger and self-loathing, and fear and paranoia too, over and over again," Benedict, who specializes in writing about Iraq war, told IOL.
"The stories can begin to penetrate, infiltrating the caregivers' dreams and thoughts with images of death and mutilation."
Experts say the Fort Hood tragedy should shed the light on the heavy mental toll of America’s army.
"Any army from any culture at any time in history pay a price for warfare," says Professor Figley, the founding president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
"We are discovering that the mental toll may be greater than any effect of war."
Benedict, author of "The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in
Iraq", says that in interviewing 40 veterans of the Iraq war for her book she got to hear the true stories of what soldiers at war zones suffer.
"Children run over by convoys, women blown up by bombs, innocent bystanders slaughtered by automatic weapons, cluster bombs, suicide bombers," she told IOL.
"Such sights haunt a person for years, if not forever."
She added that many troopers feel the remorse, fury and self-loathing that come
from fighting a war that has no clear justification and that they don't understand.
"They come home so ashamed and horrified at themselves that they cut themselves off from all who loved them."
Benedict says some service men even turn on his comrades or wreak havoc at home.
"This leads to self-destruction and violence."
A recent study by the RAND Corp found that more than 300,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.
Another study by The New York Times showed that dozens of US war veterans, whose battle experiences on the streets of Baghdad and Kabul left them with psychic wounds, have been convicted of first-degree homicide back home.
Climate of Denial
Experts warn that ignoring the mental toll of the wars on the US army may lead to future tragedies like Fort Hood’s.
"This event requires everyone to reexamine what we know and how to use this information to somehow prevent future Ft. Hood-type events," asserts professor Figley.
He said that although the army is aware of the plight of trauma soldiers, including therapists like Major Hasan, not so much is done to address that.
"However, there should be a comprehensive program of prevention and education so that when there are warning signs, actions can be taken."
Professor Benedict believes the military and the country are in a "climate of denial" regarding the price of endless wars.
"As a civilian society and even in the military too we hide our heads. We use benign euphemisms to disguise death 'friendly fire,' 'collateral damage'," she explained.
"Until recently we banned the sight of soldiers’ coffins in the media. We don't discuss what cluster bombs, drones, and automatic weapons actually do to people."
Benedict believes the Obama administration has begun to change this climate of denial.
"But as long as we civilians hide from the true horror of war, we leave our soldiers and their caregivers unheard, unsupported and alone."
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