ACHILLES IN VIETNAM : Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
- Book Review,
by Jonathan Shay
Amazon.com
Shay works from an intriguing premise: that the study of the great Homeric epic of war, The Iliad, can illuminate our understanding of Vietnam, and vice versa. Along the way, he compares the battlefield experiences of men like Agamemnon and Patroclus with those of frontline grunts, analyzes the berserker rage that overcame Achilles and so many American soldiers alike, and considers the ways in which societies ancient and modern have accounted for and dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder---a malady only recently recognized in the medical literature, but well attested in Homer's pages. The novelist Tim O'Brien, who has written so affectingly about his experiences in combat, calls Shay's book "one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam war." He's right.
From Publishers Weekly
Shay is a psychiatrist specializing in treating Vietnam veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress syndrome. In this provocative monograph, he relates their experiences to Homer's portrait of Achilles in The Illiad. War, he argues, generates rage because of its intrinsic unfairness. Only one's special comrades can be trusted. The death of Patroklos drove Achilles first into passionate grief, then into berserk wrath. Shay establishes convincing parallels to combat in Vietnam, where the war was considered meaningless and mourning for dead friends was thwarted by an indifferent command structure. He convincingly recommends policies of unit rotation and unit "griefwork"--official recognition of combat losses--as keys to sustaining what he calls a moral existence during war's human encounters. The alternatives are unrestrained revenge-driven behavior, endless reliving of the guilt such behavior causes and the ruin of good character. Shay's ideas merit attention by soldiers and scholars alike. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Narratives from Vietnam veterans, excerpts from Homer's Iliad, and quotes from the Bible are here used to compare combat during the Vietnam War and the time of the Iliad, providing a scholarly book about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is estimated that a quarter of a million Vietnam veterans suffer from PTSD today. Although this work will be a bit difficult for those not versed in Homer's epic poem, the comparisons vividly show the effects of PTSD. For serious researchers on the psychology of PTSD, this book provides an intriguing approach. Educated lay readers, students, and scholars interested in the Vietnam war will want to consider this extraordinary perspective on the problem of PTSD. Recommended for serious psychology and literature collections.- H. Robert Malinowsky, Univ. of Illinois, ChicagoCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Psychiatrist Shay has learned from his own patients that, with treatment, a Vietnam veteran can usually overcome horror, fear, and grief--but not when "what's right" has been violated. Betrayal by superiors in the field or, more likely, by officers or politicians in comfortable surroundings is the one unforgivable action. Currently, 250,000 Vietnam veterans meet the accepted criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, so this is not a minor matter. Shay, who knows both his Homer and his combat soldiers, has done a remarkable job of comparing and contrasting the Greek soldiers before Troy and U.S. grunts in Vietnam. Group loyalty and support were vital to individuals in both groups, while the major differences involved grief work and the image of the enemy. Shay also explores the concept, emotions, and actions of the berserker (of which he takes Achilles as the model), and he discloses that one of his major treatment goals is to make remembering possible. This is a profoundly human book and a strong, realistic argument against modern warfare. William Beatty
From Kirkus Reviews
In a brilliantly creative extended analogy, psychiatrist Shay (Tufts Medical School) persuasively argues that the experiences and behavior of traumatized Vietnam veterans echo those of Achilles in Homer's Iliad. Shay's ``principal concern is to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences'' that ``can ruin good character.'' He follows the Iliad closely, showing how Achilles' character, like those of modern veterans, gradually disintegrates under the pressure of organized combat: Arbitrary command decisions (e.g., the seizure by Agamemnon of a war prize voted Achilles by his fellow warriors or the capricious assignment of a GI by a superior to hazardous duty) betray the soldier's sense of fairness and fuel his incipient rage. In combat, the soldier's social and moral horizon then shrinks to a small group of trusted companions, like the Vietnam soldier's ``buddy'' or Achilles' beloved friend Patroklos. Under the stress of combat, the soldier's rage, grief, and sense of abandonment and disconnection culminate in a ``berserk'' state in which he commits successive atrocities. Using first-person accounts of Vietnam veterans, Shay compares each aspect of Achilles' moral deterioration with the veterans' strikingly similar experiences. The author expresses cautious hope that survivors of severe trauma can recover to some degree (although many veterans' lives seem permanently blighted by their Vietnam experiences). He makes some recommendations for ameliorating the worst effects of severe combat trauma; among these are the preservation of unit cohesion throughout the combat experience (rather than, as in Vietnam, rotating individuals into and out of units while engaged in combat) and reform of motivational techniques used by officers in combat. A heart-rending look at the permanent ruin war can wreak in any age. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Herbert Mitgang The New York Times A transcendent literary adventure. His compassionate book deserves a place in the lasting literature of the Vietnam War.
Book Description
In this strikingly original and groundbreaking book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer's Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets.
About the Author
Jonathan Shay is a Boston-area psychiatrist whose patients are Vietnam combat veterans with severe, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder in the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic. He is also on the faculty of Tufts Medical School. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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