Exploring the maladaptive cognitions of moral injury within a primarily combat-trauma military sample.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel L. Boska ◽  
Daniel W. Capron
Keyword(s):  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma ◽  
Maladaptive Cognitions

Validation of the Moral Injury Construct for Combat Trauma

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Flipse Vargas ◽  
Joseph Currier ◽  
Thomas Hanson ◽  
Alison Conway ◽  
Douglas Kraus
Keyword(s):  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma

scholarly journals An evolutionary theory of moral injury with insight from Turkana warriors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Zefferman ◽  
Sarah Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Norm Enforcement ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Enforcement Mechanisms

Clinicians in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies are rethinking whether Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is caused solely by exposure to life-threatening experiences, or also by moral injury—witnessing or participating in acts that violate moral beliefs. However, while there are evolutionary hypotheses explaining PTSD as a response to physical danger, the evolutionary roots of moral injury lack an explanation. We posit that a subset of symptoms of combat-related PTSD is associated with moral injury and that these symptoms evolved in tandem with human’s norm-psychology. We can examine this hypothesis by comparing societies with different moral beliefs about warfare, norm enforcement mechanisms, and spheres of moral concern. To illustrate the utility of this framework, we describe combat trauma, war norms, and norm enforcement among Turkana pastoralist warriors in Kenya who participate in highly lethal raids of neighboring ethnic groups. We previously showed that depressive PTSD symptoms in Turkana warriors are more strongly associated with experiencing moral violations in combat, and that Turkana warriors with comparably high overall PTSD symptom-severity experience lower rates of depressive symptoms than US combat veterans. Here we detail aspects of Turkana warfare, moral beliefs, and post-battle rituals that differ from WEIRD societies, and that may ameliorate the symptoms of moral injury in Turkana warriors. Our findings highlight how further studies of combat trauma outside of WEIRD militaries can help evaluate this theory and illustrate the importance of cross-cultural research for identifying the evolutionary roots of combat stress and best practices for prevention and recovery.

Making Meaning After Combat Trauma and Moral Injury

2017 ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
C.J. Button ◽  
J. Jinkerson ◽  
C.J. Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma ◽  
Making Meaning

Moral injury and original sin: The applicability of Augustinian moral psychology in light of combat trauma

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Powers
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
Personal Agents ◽  
External Forces

Veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan often experience moral injury as an ambiguous sense of guilt or deep confusion or annihilation of a sense of what is good and right. Augustine argued that as personal agents, our willing follows that which we desire—the problem is that our desires are externally and internally distorted and our willing thus follows goods that are twisted and false. I argue that an Augustinian framework of human willing in pursuit of distorted goods holds a great deal of explanatory power in terms of the pathology of human violence and the phenomenon of moral injury in combat veterans. As several prominent psychological studies suggest, evolutionary, societal, and cultural forces condition our capacity to make critical moral decisions. Those studying moral injury in combatants have observed the profound guilt that eventually results from their participation in acts of violence and even in support of missions whose moral “good” they come to question. An Augustinian framework recognizes both the power of these external forces and the distortable nature of our own moral values and therefore allows us to locate moral injury in the realm of systemic, widespread societal and cultural problems. This definition allows the experience of differing levels of participation in wartime violence from “front-line combat” to support missions to be understood as valid experiences of moral injury while simultaneously recognizing that one’s active agency is required in order to experience moral injury. Further, this framework may resonate with veterans who experience hopelessness as a result of reflection on the malleability of human willing and its profound vulnerability to outside forces.

The Good Kill

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc LiVecche ◽  
Timothy S. Mallard
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Just War ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Combat Trauma ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Simple Observation ◽  
Just War Tradition ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Primary Predictor

The Good Kill examines killing in war in its moral and normative dimension. It argues against the commonplace belief, often tacitly held if not consciously asserted, among academics, the general public, and even military professionals, that killing, including in a justified war, is always morally wrong even when necessary. In light of an increasingly sophisticated understanding of combat trauma, this belief is a crisis. Moral injury, a proposed subset of posttraumatic stress disorder, occurs when one does something that goes against deeply held normative convictions. In a military context, the primary predictor of moral injury is having killed in combat. In turn, the primary predictor for suicide among combat veterans is moral injury. In this way, the assertion that killing is wrong but in war it is necessary becomes deadly, rendering the very business of the profession of arms morally injurious. It does not need to be this way. Beginning with the simple observation—recognized by both common sense and law—that killing comes in different kinds, this book equips warfighters and those charged with their care and formation with confidence in the rectitude of certain kinds of killing. Engaging with Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey, Nigel Biggar, and other leading Christian realists, crucial normative principles within the just war tradition are brought to bear on questions regarding just conduct in war, moral and nonmoral evil, and enemy love. The Good Kill helps equip the just warrior to navigate the morally bruising field of battle without becoming irreparably morally injured.

Preventing Psychological and Moral Injury in Military Service

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Shay ◽  
William Nash ◽  
Cameron March ◽  
David Gibson ◽  
Kathy Darte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Moral Injury

Moral injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal behavior among National Guard personnel.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig J. Bryan ◽  
AnnaBelle O. Bryan ◽  
Erika Roberge ◽  
Feea R. Leifker ◽  
David C. Rozek
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
National Guard ◽  
Moral Injury
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