Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma

Author Dr. Jonathan Shay has written two books about how war affects the psychology of combatants. His first book, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character uses Homer’s Iliad as a focus for exploring combat and psychology, both ancient and modern. His most recent book, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, published by Scribner, uses the ancient Greek story of Odysseus returning from the Trojan War as a way to examine the problems of traumatized Vietnam veterans. In this ethics roundtable discussion, Dr. Shay discussed strategies for preventing psychological damage to combatants with a group of U.S. Naval Academy faculty. close