The Unhappy Warrior
Dec 2005, Vol. 150, No. 6
By Christopher Coker
Every culture contains a set of ideas and beliefs about the nature of human beings; what motivates them to act; the way they perceive their world; how their minds work and the emotions that are natural to them. A soldier is less likely to be traumatized when he is able to see death and destruction not as emotionally scarring but as a challenge. In short, we heal psychic wounds when we are able to give meaning to our experiences. Clearly, if an experience is deemed ‘meaningless’ then so is the pain and suffering that results. We heal our wounds when we are provoked by an individual challenge to fight on. When we fight on for those around us, for our ‘band of brothers’. It’s the sense of solidarity that allows a soldier to make sense of adversity. Whether a soldier is traumatized or not will depend in part on how he interprets that experience or how he’s allowed to. It is because society as a whole can no longer interpret the experience except as a tragedy (a much misused word), or waste of life, that the individual soldier is unable to interpret negative experiences in a positive light. Indeed, the predisposition of society to see soldiers as victims encourages them to exaggerate their own vulnerability to emotional and psychological stress. Warriors, like the rest of us, are only human.
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By Christopher Coker
Every culture contains a set of ideas and beliefs about the nature of human beings; what motivates them to act; the way they perceive their world; how their minds work and the emotions that are natural to them. A soldier is less likely to be traumatized when he is able to see death and destruction not as emotionally scarring but as a challenge. In short, we heal psychic wounds when we are able to give meaning to our experiences. Clearly, if an experience is deemed ‘meaningless’ then so is the pain and suffering that results. We heal our wounds when we are provoked by an individual challenge to fight on. When we fight on for those around us, for our ‘band of brothers’. It’s the sense of solidarity that allows a soldier to make sense of adversity. Whether a soldier is traumatized or not will depend in part on how he interprets that experience or how he’s allowed to. It is because society as a whole can no longer interpret the experience except as a tragedy (a much misused word), or waste of life, that the individual soldier is unable to interpret negative experiences in a positive light. Indeed, the predisposition of society to see soldiers as victims encourages them to exaggerate their own vulnerability to emotional and psychological stress. Warriors, like the rest of us, are only human.
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