The biggest takeaway: you don't have to demonize your enemies to successfully engage in combat.

The second biggest takeaway: if you demonize your enemies and vent your rage, you will destroy yourself in the process, even if you survive every battle.

Third takeaway: it's usually not grief or betrayal alone, but those combined, that lead to PTSD or moral injury.

Amazing read!

I picked this up after hearing Jonathan Shay give a presentation in Washington. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Shay has used a brilliant medium for discussing the foundations of PTSD in combat veterans, interpreting Achilles’ actions in the Iliad as a manifestation of severe psychological trauma resulting from the death of his friend and foster brother Patroklos, made worse by Agamenon’s disrespectful seizure of Briseis. Shay argues that PTSD results from a violation of “what’s right” followed by a traumatic event, often the death of a comrade. All of the anguish, guilt and rage of disillusioned soldiers are depicted clearly in the Iliad, and Shay compares Homer’s poetic descriptions to much earthier quotes from some of the Vietnam veterans he has worked with.

Sensitive, eloquent and full of profound revelations, this book altered my own view on PTSD and gave me a new appreciation for Homer. Shay believes that the stigma associated with grief and the lack of social support for soldiers during the Vietnam War and after it led to a high incidence of PTSD. He contrasts this with the soldiers of the Iliad who took time to mourn the dead. He also points out that dehumanizing the enemy leads to tactical errors and atrocities against noncombatants and that the Greeks and Trojans respected each other even though they were enemies.

Shay concludes his book with recommendations for ways of preventing combat trauma which would require major changes in the US military. He goes into much greater detail in his second book Odysseus in America.

There is much common sense here, and a great deal of wisdom which will hopefully influence changes in military training and organization.

Homer is ever present in modern culture, but his power is often reduced to a kind of cartoon. The Iliad becomes a sword-and-sandals Hollywood cliche and the Odyssey becomes the original road movie. Shay brings the Iliad back to reality by shining a new light on the ferocious pain of Achilles, pain that today might be called PTSD, but which Shay calls "moral injury."

Shay reads the Iliad as a psychologist and observes in Achilles some of the same symptoms that he sees in his patients, many of whom are veterans of the Vietnam War. The common denominator -- and the thing that differentiates many Vietnam veterans from WWII vets -- is an element of betrayal and disrespect that became the core of the Vietnam experience. Shay calls this "moral injury." The anger of Achilles stems from the disrespect shown him by Agamemnon, and this anger blossoms into grief and rage, causing a breakdown in the soldier's social and moral constructs. When this happens in a combat theater, as it frequently did in Vietnam, the results are catastrophic.

The parallels that Shay draws between Achilles and the experiences of many Vietnam veterans are minutely detailed, including the gut-wrenching voices of the veterans themselves, and his argument is very persuasive. His conclusion is both instructive and practical. He doesn't bewail the existence of war and prescribe an idealistic pacifistic solution. Instead, in a deliberate and concrete way, he shows how vitally important leadership qualities are in the military. In some ways this book seems to be written especially for military commanders, as a reminder that the lesson of the Iliad is still ringing in our ears: to preserve the moral horizon, whatever the circumstances.

Terrific book

Provides insight into how war has changed over the centuries. Although we do better at ‘fixing’ the physical wounds of the combatants, the psychological and moral injuries are so much worse. A must read for anyone who favors going to war.

I feel like this book needs an up-front disclaimer. While it is fair and accurate to describe the book as an interesting academic comparison of the the experience of soldiers in the Illiad (though the caveat must be added: the experience *as related by Homer*) and modern-day soldiers in Vietnam, as well as an argument for a particular framework to understand the 'failure mode' of humans under extreme wartime stress, there are also moments of 'throw you entirely out of the book' revulsion while reading.

But be prepared for racist and dehumanizing quotations, as well as graphic descriptions of death. That said- I don't think any of it is gratuitous. The book is primarily about psychology of soldiers in wartime, attempting to understand them probably *should* be jarring.

One love, one hate:

I loved the framework for understanding the contraction of social circle that results from stress. Strong examples both from the Illiad and modern experience showing how a person’s ‘tribe’ becomes both more sharply defined and contracts under wartime conditions. Also interesting and practical ideas for how those conditions might be changed to prevent the social isolation and resulting socially unbound behavior of some soldiers.

I hated the argument that demonization and dehumanization of the enemy is a Judeo-Muslim-Christian phenomenon. (Although I appreciate that the author includes Muslim in this grouping, what he seems to actually mean is Abrahamic religion. And then he proceeds to use only a Christian interpretation of good and evil, so my appreciation is muted.) The biblical passages he sites to bolster his ‘the enemy is animalistic’ argument seem to do nothing of the kind, and he undercuts own his argument by referencing the wartime propaganda of the Japanese, who are definitely not culturally Abrahamic and have no problem demonizing and dehumanizing the enemy. Then, he begins the next chapter with an offhand comment that Homer’s audience would have been descended from both sides of the Illiad conflict… which would *entirely* explain why the Illiad contains so little of the demonizing/dehumanizing language we have come to expect of soldiers in wartime!

Overall, a good read for anyone with an interest in psychology, history, and war. Would be a good discussion book paired with either the Illiad (duh) or On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman.

Combat Trauma has been around since the invention of war. Jonathan Shay makes the connection between his patients who survived the Vietnam War and the ancient poem of the Illiad to show how devastating war can be for a soldier.

Shay notes that there are definite connections between PTSD and Achilles' experience in the Trojan War. Achilles suffers first a moral injury when Agamemnon steals Breisis his prize from him. Then when Patroclus dies in battle, Achilles goes into full berserker rage. His degradation of character is demonstrated in his treatment of Hector's corpse.

Shay's contribution here is twofold. First, he helps the reader of the Illiad understand better what they are reading. Second, he helps the lay reader understand the nature of War Trauma and its effect on the moral character of what they are dealing with.

Basing his modern day observations on the experience of the soldiers he is counseling offers a profound first hand experience into the nature of war. Gone from this are the flowerly language of Homer and the great depictions of battle. We experience the war from the every day life of every day grunts who have spent the majority of their time from the war trying to escape or make sense of their experience.

Shay's writing is clear and written for a popular audience. However, his topics are complex and require a deep level of reading.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in PTSD, warrior culture, or the Iliad.

Grade: A-

A powerful study of the impact of PTSD on the human personality, using the Iliad and other classic literary portraits of traumatized warriors to illustrate the timelessness of this problem with special emphasis on the reasons that the Vietnam war was a more shattering experience for many veterans than other wars have been.

This was another one of those required readings, for a course on writing, but the subject was Troy to Vietnam. The first time I had this Professor he showed us how not only did the men in Vietnam had PSTD but also that Achilles had suffered from it also. This book was great to read along with the Iliad, brings you to a new place in classic literature.

“Every fucking one that died, I say, “______, here’s one for you, baby. I’ll take this motherfucker out and I’m going to cut his fucking heart out for you.”

“Would god my passion drove me to slaughter you and eat you raw….”

Dr. Shay provides an incredibly compelling analysis between the long-lived PTSD experienced by Vietnam Veterans and Achilles' rage and the "berserk" state in The Iliad. I was incredibly moved by the testimonies from veterans which Shay uses to prove his claims of connection throughout the book. In all honesty, if you are even a little bit interested in veteran trauma or the effects of war, this book is worth the read.

The final chapter on "The Law of Denying and Forgetting" and his conclusion are alone worth picking up this book.

It is emotionally draining, but if you can get through the content it provides amazing advice (basically, he helps you understand the science of truly impactful leadership) for leaders in the military but this can be extended to any career field in which there is the opportunity for trauma to occur.