“Whether we’re actually preserving veterans’ capacity to have a flourishing life after war, a good life for a human being after war, I don’t know. I just don’t know,” says clinical psychiatrist Jonathan Shay.
8 Responses to “Jonathan Shay Extended Interview”
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I am trying to get Dr. Shay’s E address. The one in the book Achilles is not current evidently. Thank You.
Try: JShayinMA@comcast.net
I too am trying to get Dr. Shay’s E address. Can someone provide that to me. Thanks!
In Dr. Shay’s tradition of referencing the lessons of the Iliad, I recommend http://www.theater-of-war.com/
Dr. Shay will be speaking about his work with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and will be on a panel discussing a Theater of War performance, at After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma (Nov 12-13, 2010/ Washington DC). This conference will focus ways that the humanities can help health care professionals better understand the long term effects of trauma on their patients and themselves.
If I may, as a veteran…Vietnam era… After years of deep pondering, in the language of my heart…
It is Good Friday without the Resurrection… that Jonathan is describing.
It is getting “stuck” in Good Friday (the trauma)
Or stuck in Holy Saturday … waiting at the tomb with Mary… see Spirituality of Waiting…
and not getting to Easter Sunday… He is Risen… and all that came before is integrated and whole…
“How could God do this… allow this…” The Moral Certainty is shaken
consider any of the apostles experience of Good Friday… they all ran except John…
a profound loss (moral wounding). an imponderable question who am I now after this loss (moral wounding).
Chronic disenfranchised grief combined with cognitive dissonance.
Consider not the Iliad … it isn’t resonant with hearts today…
Consider Holy Week instead… Begin with Palm Sunday…
Ask veterans to describe his/her relationship to each expression of the Passion… begins a journey for healing. Provides the language for the magnitude of the loss that was experienced.
Consider Peter… denied Jesus 3 times… ran away… what was his Good Friday Evening and Saturday like…
ask a veteran…
God Bless You Jonathan Shay…
whatever you do for the least…
Amen
Dear Beatitudes,
Please get in touch with me as I am interested in your unpacking your model using the Passion story. My email address is: n6cl@sbcglobal.net.
If you are interested in Moral Injury, and helping vets recovery from it, check out the new Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School, TCU. The web address is britesoulrepair.org.