Reply #32: I Still Don't Follow [View All]

[RobinA]

your thinking. Where is the notion that guilt arising from a disorder and guilt arising from doing something are different coming from? I don't know what guilt arising from a disorder is. Everybody in war is part of something ugly. The supply sargeant can suffer from just as much PTSD as the guy on the front. As can the guy up in the plane dropping smart bombs. Some guys on the front don't suffer from PTSD.

Why do you think that psycholgists are going to treat the supply sargeant the same as the guy on the front or the guy in the plane? The treating psychologist is going to take each soldier's individual circumstances into consideration when treating him.

Are you implying that a psychologist treating Jeff Lucey should say to him, "Sorry guy, you shot unarmed Iraqis. Your guilt is normal, so go away and suffer from your normal feelings?" His psychologist sees in front of him a soldier who has been to war, has experienced certain things, and is now suffering the aftermath and is possibily suicidal. That's a disorder. The guy next to Jeff in the field is feeling just okey dokey. He doesn't have a disorder. The psychologist is interested in keeping Jeff from committing suicide and then helping him going on to live a normal life. All "disorder" means is a deviation from what is considered to be "normal" functioning that causes the person distress. It doesn't get more disordered than suicide.

My reference to your desire to cast people into the fire refers to the fact that you seem to want to judge the soldier in war and somehow toss his guilt away as just a normal reaction to being a soldier.