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Vietnam War: Post-War Mental Health

A research guide covering the major aspects of the Vietnam War.

Internet Resources

My Father's Vietnam: The Psychological Burdens of War

A personal documentary about a public subject, My Father's Vietnam personifies the connections made and unmade by the Vietnam War. Featuring never-before-seen photographs and 8mm footage of the era, My Father's Vietnam is the story of three soldiers, only one of whom returned home alive.

Source: Kanopy

Perspectives

Achilles in Vietnam

An original and groundbreaking book that examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer's Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In this moving, dazzlingly creative book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer's Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. A classic of war literature that has as much relevance as ever in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a "transcendent literary adventure" (The New York Times) and "clearly one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam War" (Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried).

Flashback

With record numbers of soldiers returning from the Middle East already suffering from PTSD, 'Flashback' provides a necessary lesson on the real tragedy of battle for soldiers and their families, something that continues long after the war ends.

Shook over Hell

Vietnam still haunts the American conscience. Not only did nearly 58,000 Americans die there, but by some estimates 1.5 million veterans returned with war-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This psychological syndrome, responsible for anxiety, depression, and a wide array of social pathologies, is here placed in an historical context. Eric Dean relates the psychological problems of veterans of the Vietnam War to the mental and readjustment problems experienced by veterans of the Civil War.

Healing Suicidal Veterans

Veterans are suffering a "mental breakdown" epidemic, often linked to post traumatic stress from the terrors of combat, traumatic brain injury, and drug and alcohol abuse. The problems triggered by an excessive number of deployments, financial and family trouble, fragmented or nonexistent support systems, and increased domestic stress have caused a mass depression among vets. Healing Suicidal Veterans takes readers firsthand into the "situation room" where crisis intervention and addiction therapist Victor Montgomery explores the psychological wounds of war and the ways they contribute to the tragedy of suicidal veterans. He presents the Montgomery Model for ending veterans' suffering and anguish and putting them on solid paths to healing. The book offers veterans strategies for realizing they are not failures if they seek aid, and it gives families and loved ones ways to understand, cope with, and help their veteran in need.

Healing a Soldier's Heart

Over two million Americans served in the Vietnam War. Forty years later, tens of thousands of veterans still suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But a groundbreaking approach provides hope for these psychologically wounded former warriors, as well as for veterans of more recent wars.

Source: Kanopy