Moral Injury

[Mme. Defarge]

I recently had my routine annual check in with my primary care physician and when she asked about my general mood I said that I was feeling depressed over “world events” so as to be honest without putting her in an awkward situation. She responded by saying that many of her patients were saying the same thing.

But “depression” doesn’t exactly fit with what I’m experiencing and today I came across this article in The Guardian, which pretty much describes my reaction to “current events.” Maybe it will for some of you as well.

‘Not unique to war’: millions of Americans suffer from moral injury. What’s causing it?

Jo Livingstone
Tue 7 Apr 2026 12.00 EDT

Last year, the American Psychiatric Association for the first time added moral injury to its update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

To experience moral injury is to be forced to act in ways or to witness actions that contradict your most deeply held convictions.

You can sustain moral injury in one catastrophic event, like hurting an enemy combatant in an armed conflict you don’t believe is just. It can also appear after a slow crescendo of moral distress, as people who work in slaughterhouses or prisons report. Easily mistaken for depression, moral distress frequently presents as sadness or feeling like a bad person.

In his new book, Moral Injury: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt, Michael Valdovinos, a former US military psychologist, points out this “unique kind of stress” overwhelmed medics early in the Covid-19 pandemic who felt they had betrayed their oath to do no harm, and in his own crisis of conscience while deployed to Afghanistan.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/apr/07/moral-injury-us-citizens-michael-valdovinos-book?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


(Contrary to my DU screen name character, naturellement!)

[Vinca]

1. I think when I was asked that a few weeks ago I commented that if a person wasn't a bit depressed,

there was definitely something wrong with them. The nurse agreed.

[Mme. Defarge]

2. Exactement!

[DET]

3. Fascinating!

I kept trying to think of a term that describes the anomie that I think most sane people have been feeling since Trump was re-elected (I.e., stole the election). It feels to me like someone has died. Situational depression was all I could come up with, but that term does not adequately reflect the sense of betrayal, horror at the complete lack of decency, and fury at the destruction of anything resembling the rule of law. ‘Moral injury’ works. Thank you.

[Mme. Defarge]

4. De rien!

I’m thinking of buying the book.