While reading questions to Mark Goulston: What is PTSD Like from the Inside Out?
1. What is the difference between “loosey goosey” enlistees and fighting machines?
2. Explain the transformer analogy. Why does Goulston use this analogy?
3. Why do soldiers going to war feel like “superhumans”?
4. Explain the difference between this feeling upon going to war, and the feelings that may arise on or near the battlefield.
5. How do soldiers typically deal with traumatic experiences while still at war?
6. Explain the Humpty Dumpty analogy p.136.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
(English nursery rime from Lewis Carrol: Beyond the Looking Glass)
7. What is Goulston referring to when he uses the analogy “paper thin veneer graft”?
8. Why does PTSD arise according to the text?
9. When does PTSD happen according to the text?
10. In what sense is the fear of re-traumatisation the source of PTSD?
11. Summing up: what is the basic problem for soldiers when re-entering civilian life after having had war experience? Relate their experience to the title of this book.
Helen Davey: The Impact of Trauma
Comprehension
1. What is the difference between an “intellectual understanding” and one of “empathetic introspection”? (p.138)
2. Why would a soldier have issues of guilt, shame and mortality?
3. Make a list of the methods of treatment applied by Dr. Carr
4. Why, according to Helen Davey, do these methods work as opposed to more conventional methods?
5. What are “absolutisms of daily life” and why is it traumatic when these absolutisms are shattered?
6. What is a “relational home”, and why is it important to create such a home in the doctor patient relationship?
7. Why is a feeling of alone-ness the most essential feeling for a soldier suffering from PTSD?
8. An example given in the text is Major B, who feels guilty about the violence he inflicted even though he believes he acted correctly. How did he deal with this guilt before meeting Dr Carr? How did Dr Carr help him?
Analysis
1. Compare “The Impact of Trauma” with “What is PTSD like from the Inside Out”. What similarities do you find between the texts? What are the differences in language style? In whom the texts are addressed to.
2. How could Carr’s method help treat the following fictional characters/real people from the texts you have read?
a. Tom O’Brien (The Man I Killed)
b. Nathanial Fick (One Bullet Away)
c. Graves (Generation Kill p. 96)
d. Eddie Wright (Generation Kill pp.99-101)
e. Krebs (A Soldier’s Home)
f. Seymour Glass (A Perfect Day for Bananafish)
3. According to Helen Davey, Carr has managed to bridge the gap between the phenomena of “psychoanalysis” and “military”.
a. In what sense has he done so?
b. Compare this article to “A Brief History of PTSD”. In what sense may Carr’s approach be seen as modern-day approach to PTSD? What might General Patton have said to this approach?
4. One of the main challenges faced by soldiers is the sense of not living up to the male role model of the John Wayne type hero. Make a list of characters/people you have come across in this book that likewise have trouble living up to this ideal.
Sam Rocha: An Interview With a Combat Soldier in Iraq
Comprehension
1. Give a summary of the text
2. What is the problem in finding the difference between war and peace for the soldier?
3. What does he think of the Iraqi people and why? Does he understand them? Do they understand him?
4. What does he think of Iraq compared to home?
5. Does the soldier have a clear sense of purpose?
6. The soldier states that, “with hate comes blindness”. What does he mean by that?
7. What does he mean when he says, “screw the big mission”? What is important to him instead?
Analysis
1. One problem the soldier seems to face is a lack of a sense of purpose. How does he deal with this compared to Fick in “One Bullet Away”?
2. How much of this do you think has to do with the fact that Fick is a platoon commander and the soldier in this interview is just an ordinary soldier?
3. How do other soldier deal with the lack of clear idea of their mission in “One Bullet Away” and in “Generation Kill”?
4. Sam Rocha interviews the soldier at a distance from the war scene. This is very different from “Generation Kill”, in which Evan Wright is an “embedded journalist”.
a. What do the two approaches have in common?
b. In what sense do they differ?
c. To what extent do the journalists understand the soldiers?
d. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of journalism?
5. Is there anything in the soldier’s experience to suggest he might suffer from PTSD at a later stage? Think of what is emphasised in “What is PTSD Like from the Inside Out” and “The Impact of Trauma”
Jon Michael Turner: Winter Soldier Testimony
Comprehension
1. Mac McKinney mentions several wartime atrocities that were committed by American armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. What atrocities were committed?
2. Why did the American corporate media ignore this indictment?
3. Who is Jon Michael Turner?
4. Why, according to Turner, does he choose to testify
5. Why does he throw his medals into the audience?
6. Describe how he experienced his first kill?
7. We learn that they had an embedded reporter from CBS, Lara Logan, with them. Did she get to see the whole picture?
8. How do the soldiers manipulate with the embedded reporters?
9. What do you think of Turner’s tattoo on his “choking hand” that says “F you” in Arabic?
10. How do the Americans treat detainees?
Analysis
Turner concludes his testimony with the words “I am sorry for the things that I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was.”
1. In what sense does the testimony mark a change in Turner?
2. In what sense might the testimony have a cleansing effect on Turner?
3. To what extent are you able to forgive him for his actions, knowing that he has behaved like a monster?
4. How has he managed to deal with the issue of returning from “battlemind” to “homemind”?
5. Does Turner remind you of any other people/characters you have come across in this book? Make a list and explain the similarity.
6. According to Evan Wright in Generation Kill, the most common sentiment for veteran soldiers is to want to go back to where they fought and get it right. Is that what Turner wants to do?
7. How would Goulston explain Turner’s state of mind? Do Goulston’s theories hold water in relation to Turner’s state of mind?
8. Supposing Dr. Carr was to try and help Turner deal with his issues, what would he say to him? Could he help him learn to live with himself and what he has seen and done?
Jonathan Norell’s Journal
1. Describe Norell’s experience with the man whose wife and daughter asked Norell for help
a. What do the wife and daughter seem to think of him?
b. How did he feel, knowing there was nothing he could do to help the man?
c. Do we know what happened when the man was killed?
2. Meaning of trauma
a. When did Norell develop his trauma? Before or after the events?
b. To what extent is his trauma caused by his own actions?
c. How does focussing on the good things he has done help him cope with his PTSD?
d. How has he learned from the experience?
3. On the couch
a. How does Norell’s experience compare to that of Turner in “Winter Soldier’s Testimony”?
b. How might Dr Carr in “The Impact of Trauma” help Turner if they were to enter a therapeutic relationship?
c. Compared to Seymour Glass, the fictitious main character in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Turner seems determined to survive and learn form his ordeal. If Turner had a conversation with Seymour Glass, what might he say to help him?
d. To what extent is Turner’s determination to move on the result of a more modern understanding of PTSD than Seymour Glass experiences as a World War II veteran?
Interview with the Wife of a Veteran Diagnosed with PTSD
Comprehension
1. Describe the symptoms of PTSD as witnessed by the veteran’s wife.
2. How did he get help, and how easy was it to do so?
3. Describe his treatment.
4. How has the experienced affected the wife?
5. How well do other people understand the veteran’s situation?
Analysis
1. The veteran’s PTSD had a delayed onset. Is that typical of PTSD? Compare to other texts from this chapter.
2. How well does the veteran deal with the situation and what other ways do veterans tend to deal with such situations?
3. Imagine you were the husband or wife of a veteran soldier who seems to have PTSD. What challenges might you face? What might you do to help?
4.
According to the following link, divorce rates for veterans with PTSD are much higher than for the general public and for veteran soldiers in general. Issues such as domestic violence are also common: www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/partners_of_vets_research_findings.asp
- What does the government do to help according to the link?
- What options are generally available for the spouses (i.e. husbands or wives) of veteran soldiers?
What is PTSD Like from the Inside Out: Post reading
1. To whom is Goulston’s text addressed?
2. Describe his choice of language. Is the text scientific? Is it simplistic?
3. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of his writing style and approach to the subject.
4. Do you find it well-written? Explain why/why not.
5. What examples have you come across in the texts in this book of soldiers who might develop PTSD, or who have already done so?
6. Imagine a conversation between Goulston and the following people (remember that some are fictional characters, while others are real-life people):
a. Tom O’Brien (The Man I Killed)
b. Nathanial Fick (One Bullet Away)
c. Graves (Generation Kill p. 96)
d. Eddie Wright (Generation Kill pp.99-101)
e. Krebs (A Soldier’s Home)
f. Seymour Glass (A Perfect Day for Bananafish)
What would Goulston say to help these people? Would he understand their situation? Could he help them, or would his good advice go unnoticed?
7. How may One Bullet Away be regarded as an effort to come to terms with the experience of war?
8. How does Generation Kill raise the problem of how to deal with a war situation?
9. According to Goulston’s theories, is it One Bullet Away or Generation Kill that paints the most realistic picture of wartime experience?
10. Look at the front page illustration of this book. Imagine Goulston interviews these two soldiers. What would they say about the wartime experience? How does it feel for them to be photographed with the young boy? Look closely at the faces of the two soldiers and the young boy. What can we read in their facial expressions?
