Vol 33 (2013): Special Issue: Confronting Mass Atrocities
Articles

Multidisciplinary Roundtable: Soldiers’ Tales (Un)told: Perspectives on Trauma and Narrative in the Consideration and Treatment of PTSD (and pre-TSD)

Published January 14, 2014

Abstract

This interdisciplinary roundtable discussion examines the function of narrative in the context of structural violence, both preemptively and in its aftermath. It considers various functions of storytelling, reintegration and reconciliation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and approaches: clinical/physiological; psychological/human services; cultural/sociological; public health and health administration ; and historical/political. While the initial focus is current research and treatment of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) among combat veterans and other victims of conflict, the discussion necessarily engages larger issues of trauma, memory and history: the social and political responsibilities of bearing witness to traumatic histories; the ethics and protocols of interviewing survivors; and the broad relation of narrative and storytelling to social reconciliation, restorative justice, and historical truth. Particular consideration is given to the possibilities and dilemmas of applying oral history methods to the consideration and treatment of trauma. From talk therapy to Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, various narrative strategies have shown promise for mitigating the psychological and sociological traumatic disorders of conflict and atrocity. A greater understanding of the function of narrative in healing the wounds of war may also suggest preemptive strategies to the political (meta)narratives that frame, provoke, and legitimize organized violence in the first place.