By Rita Nakashima Brock & Gabriella Lettini. (2013)
From Amazon.com: “The first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on
veterans, their families, and their communities
Although veterans make up only 7 percent of the U.S.
population, they account for an alarming 20 percent of all suicides. And though
treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has undoubtedly alleviated
suffering and allowed many service members returning from combat to transition
to civilian life, the suicide rate for veterans under thirty has been
increasing. Research by Veterans Administration health professionals and
veterans’ own experiences now suggest an ancient but unaddressed wound of war
may be a factor: moral injury. This deep-seated sense of transgression includes
feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated
core moral beliefs.
Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up
in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what
moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal
the damage inflicted on soldiers’ consciences. In Soul Repair, the authors tell
the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan—Camillo “Mac” Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey,
and Camilo Mejía—who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how
they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on
families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually
helped soldiers with their moral injuries.
Soul
Repair will help veterans, their families, members of their
communities, and clergy understand the impact of war on the consciences of
healthy people, support the recovery of moral conscience in society, and
restore veterans to civilian life. When a society sends people off to war, it
must accept responsibility for returning them home to peace.”