War Trauma: Lessons Unlearned, From Vietnam to Iraq

"War Trauma" concludes "A Vietnam Trilogy," in which a nationally-renowned authority on post-traumatic stress disorder reveals the psychiatric impact of war on soldiers and veterans, which is denied or minimized by government and the military. Through efforts to treat veterans of past conflicts he illustrates the inevitability of lifelong psychiatric scars from today s conflicts as well. Scurfield draws on the experience of prior wars for valuable insights to help people who are now in the military or in the healing professions, and their families and communities, to deal with today s realities of combat and its aftermath. This book studies the psychiatric impact of war on soldiers and veterans, and their familiesm and uses the experience of veterans of earlier wars to help people who are now in the military or in the healing professions, and their families and communities, to deal with today s realities of combat and its aftermath. The effects go on for decades after the violence occurred, and we are still just learning to understand the depth and variety of problems it can cause. Further, Scurfield documents his proven innovative therapies for treating PTSD. This volume also looks at what military and mental health professionals should have learned from the Vietnam War in order to better protect Americans in later conflicts and to help them recover afterwards. The Persian Gulf War, for instance, had an immense impact on veterans of all wars. The author was a national faculty member for joint VA-DOD training programs to enhance mental health response readiness for receiving anticipated medical and psychiatric casualties from the Persian Gulf War. What he found was a resurgence of selective amnesia and denial about the true impact of war. Scurfield notes, "Chillingly, what happened in Vietnam in 1968-69 regarding psychiatric casualties has enormous parallels to what is happening today regarding US psychiatric casualties from the Iraq War."