It is critical that anyone responding to a traumatic event must be able to fulfill his or her purpose in the situation. The US Army Chaplain must be prepared to provide valued minisry during times of traumatic injury and death in a combat environment. The purpose of the investigation was to establish core ministry actions based upon identified common expectations and standards between chaplains, officers, and Soldiers of their command relating to ministry during times of traumatic injury and death in a combat environment. The intent was met though a series of steps beginning with the identification of the problem that US Army Chaplains have not been adequately prepared for the task of Combat Trauma Ministry. A review of current scholarship in the field demonstrated that significant works on Combat Trauma Ministry are almost non-existent. In order to accomplish the investigation two research methodologies were employed. There was use of quantitative data and large scale use of qualitiative research. The qualitative research provoed to be particualrly useful becauise of its focus on the study of problems in the social context. Research of the issue began with an examination of chaplain qualifications. This included a rebiew of the educational and ministerial prerequsities applicants must meet. A study of the training provided by the Army to those newly entering the US Army Chaplain Corps follows. This process revealed the challenges posed in trying to teach clergy from civilian parishes tom minister in the Army context of which many have no experience. The heart of the research is the body of interviews of chaplains, officers, and Soldiers. These personal accounts of ministry done, and failing to be done, with the theological impetus behind it provided the groundwork from which to draw the research conclusions. The research concludes that preparation for Combat Trauma Ministry within theArmy is still lacking but improving. In order to covercome remaining deficiencies individual chaplains, supervisory chaplains, and the US Army Chaplain Corps need to personally and professional augment training to ensure that the Chaplain Corps' Core Competencies Continuum - Nuture the Living, Care for the Wounded, and Honor the Dead - are adequately performed. The research identified three priorities of ministry to accomplish this intent. They are: Maintain Composure, Give them Something Tangible, and Share in the Burden. Finally, there is the recognition that the US Army Chaplain Corps must become more stringent in three specific concerns: Training and Qualification standards, developing self and supervisory care for chaplains, and prepating for the long-lasting effects of combat exposure and PTSD with a Soul Care emphasis.

This dissertation examines the phenomenon, understanding, and treatment of trauma at the intersection of phenomenology, psychology and neuroscience. I argue that Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological method, with its emphasis on the conscious and embodied nature of human phenomena, provides crucial insights into the nature and treatment of combat trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By situating the discussion of trauma and adaptation within research on the topic in neuroscience and psychology, the dissertation demonstrates how phenomenological understanding of trauma contributes fundamentally to the understanding of trauma proffered by the sciences. After discussing the history of trauma in psychology, phenomenology and neuroscience, I address traumatic memory as a prevalent feature of trauma. In traumatic memory, the victim relives rather than simply remembers the traumatic experience. I show how traumatic memory differs psychologically, neurologically, and phenomenologically from non-traumatic memory. In particular, I argue that phenomenological analysis of traumatic memory dramatically reveals the subjective and embodied character of human experiences, thereby providing psychological and neuroscientific accounts of trauma with a necessary, largely overlooked dimension of the experience. No serious study of trauma can neglect the question of adaptation. Using Merleau-Ponty’s work on adaptation, I argue that PTSD is better understood as the result of an attempt to adapt to a traumatic event than as a mental illness. In the last chapter of the dissertation I demonstrate how, against the backdrop of this interdisciplinary understanding, one specific adaptive tool to PTSD, namely, narrative therapy, can contribute positively to the process of adapting to trauma. This dissertation is the first detailed examination of combat trauma in the phenomenological tradition. Moreover, it offers new philosophical insights into the understanding and treatment of trauma. As an in-depth example of how insights from phenomenology, psychology and neuroscience can be fruitfully combined, it also provides a model of the potential of phenomenological inquiry to enhance our scientific accounts of human phenomena.

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Why do some soldiers racialize, and eventually dehumanize, both enemy combatants and non-combatant civilians during military conflicts? This project will trace the ways in which soldiers’ experiences in combat and the resultant trauma may lead to the development of racialized threat perceptions. Racialized threat perceptions are a belief system that teaches soldiers to view all members (combatants, noncombatants, and civilians) of a specific race as “the enemy” regardless their role in combat. This racialized threat perception leads to indiscriminate violence against all individuals in the militarized jurisdiction, including women, children, and the elderly, resulting in atrocities. Racism, racially motivated violence, and violent extremism all have a complex web of origins and drivers that this paper does not have the space to fully explore. Racism against the Asian American Pacific Islander community in the United States can point to institutionalized roots in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or explicitly racist propaganda during the Second World War or individual prejudices that appear to manifest ex nihil. The goal of this paper, however, is to analyze an understudied source of racism and racially motivated violence in the United States: counterinsurgency warfare. By conducting process tracing through 100 years of U.S. military expeditions abroad, this paper will demonstrate an additional generative source of racism and violence that continues to shape our world. I present a novel theory that explains how combat generates racialized threat perceptions in the mind of a soldier, how those racialized threat perceptions erode the ethics of the soldier and eventually return home with him. These three mechanisms include: call to civilize, psychological insecurity, and inability to discriminate between friend and foe. I specifically look at three case studies to understand the mechanisms behind a racialized threat perception over the past century: the War in the Philippines, the Vietnam War, and the Forever Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The paper concludes by demonstrating how this racialized threat perception generated during combat “comes home” with soldiers and impacts American society after the war has ended.

ABSTRACT Despite a plethora of research documenting the effectiveness of various therapeutic interventions on the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), there continues to be ambiguity insofar as which approaches or combination thereof are most effective at improving adverse manifestations of this disorder. This lack of clarity is further confounded when other variables and nuances pertaining to variations of PTSD (i.e. military, sexual trauma, childhood abuse, etc.) are factored into these comparisons. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of various interventions on improving the symptoms of PTSD. This study also examined the variances which stand in need of recognition when determining which interventions are most appropriate and meaningful in improving the quality of life and functionality of individuals with this disorder. This has significance in both macro and micro social work practices due to the potential for improvements in policies, allocation of resources, and enhancements in micro-level interventions. The research design involved qualitative interviews with clinicians devised to identify gaps, areas of agreement, and dissent among the research. Data analysis will be qualitatiive and will be guided by assessing the impact of interventions on the 17 symptoms which, according to the DSM-5 are associated with PTSD.

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This study explored the lived experience of traumatisation manifesting as enduring undiagnosed post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the overall psychological functioning of members currently serving in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) from an object-relations perspective. A qualitative approach with a phenomenological study design using semi-structured interviews and self- report questionnaires to gather data was employed. Prominent themes formed the content for interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) from an object-relations perspective on pathology in relation to untreated trauma of the psyche. The findings indicated that servicemen and women in the SANDF lived in a chronic state of psychic, occupational and relational disintegration. Recurrence of reactivated past unresolved traumas experienced in dreams, troubled sleep and internal conflict were characterised by annihilation anxiety, psychic numbing and repression. Further, there was a chronic sense of loss of the self through loss of good internal and external self-objects as well as in meaning of life and work as a soldier. The findings further revealed overall functional paralysis as evidenced in these SANDF members’continued psychological deterioration, which manifested in irreversible damage to character and cognitive deficits linked to chronic trauma in the form of undiagnosed PTSD. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Psychology / PhD (Psychology) / Unrestricted

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