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Title: ACHILLES IN VIETNAM : Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay ISBN: 0-684-81321-1 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Please care for the warriors...
Comment: As a student of the Classics, I did not read this book in order to understand the war in Vietnam and I'm fairly certain that the author is not trying to explain, condemn, or justify the conflict. What the author does, and masterfully, is to explain how a person's character can change, most often for the worse, by experiencing the various traumas of combat. In order to do this, he compares the experiences of Vietnam veterans with the experiences of Achilles in Homer's epic, the "Iliad". It is my understanding that his motive is to convince the powers that be, as well as the general public, to rethink their treatment of soldiers sent to war so that we might prevent the occurrence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's also my understanding that he chose to use the narratives of Vietnam veterans to illustrate his arguments because there has been more data collected from these people than any other combat survivors before. So this book is about how to properly care for the warrior, before and after battle, so that less might fall victim to psychiatric disorders upon returning home. It is simply amazing and wonderful to see how the words of the past, in this case Homer's Iliad, can help us in the present. This book, among other things, teaches us to value the entire canon of human writings and shows us the continued relevance of even the most ancient of texts.
Rating: 2
Summary: Slanted
Comment: I read this book three years ago as background for a fiction novel about Vietnam that is still marinating in the ether. Based on my own experiences as a combat medic, something about "Achilles in Vietnam" did not ring true. The whole post-traumatic stress syndrome discussion seemed exaggerated and inconsistent with my own experience and the experience of friends who were in heavy combat. Most of us had what I would refer to as "recovery periods" lasting from 4-10 months, with the usual substance abuse, marital problems, and mild episodes with depression that most combat soldiers experience as they try to readjust to civilian life. I would advise anyone who is interested in PSD vis-a-vis Vietnam vets to read a second analysis of PSD in a recent nonfiction work called "Stolen Valor." My advice is not to accept all of the conclusions in "Achilles in Vietnam" at face value until you have weighed the opposing point of view in "Stolen Valor." Then draw your own conclusions, which may well be somewhere in the middle.
Rating: 5
Summary: Preserving Character
Comment: Johnathan Shay's book is outstanding! Though he wrote from the perspective of a civilian without the experience of Vietnam, he accurately captured and described the psychological baggage that so many Vietnam vets carried home and continue to struggle with every day. His comparison of the Vietnam soldier to Achilles was an apt observation and his conclusions very sound. I found this book to be most useful as a leadership guide for military officers and NCO's. No doubt, many of those principal elements that contributed to the onset of PTSD could very well have been prevented or lessened by prudent and deliberate leadership.
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Title: Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay, Max Cleland, John S. McCain ISBN: 0743211561 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: An Operators Manual for Combat PTSD : Essays for Coping by Ashley Hart II ISBN: 0595137989 Publisher: Writer's Showcase Press Pub. Date: 10 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Vietnam Wives: Facing the Challenges of Life With Veterans Suffering Post-Traumatic Stress by Aphrodite Matsakis ISBN: 1886968004 Publisher: Sidran Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman ISBN: 0316330116 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Farewell, Darkness: A Veteran's Triumph over Combat Trauma by Ron Zaczek ISBN: 1557509891 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: November, 1994 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
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