History of War and Traumatic Stress Injuries: a Social Justice Perspective

Catalog description

This cross disciplinary course represents the first-ever exploration into the perplexing history of war stress injuries and repetitive military mental health crises that have plagued generations of the warrior class and American society since the turn of the 20th century. A social justice framework is adopted when examining the underlying factors believed responsible for cyclical failures to meet mental health needs including mental health stigma, disparity, and antiquated dualistic policies of mental and physical health that negatively impact military and civilian populations alike. The aftermath of military experiences in war have traditionally had a profound influence on a broad range of postwar polices and professions such as medicine, psychiatry, psychology, social work, occupational therapy, neurology, nursing, pastoral care, journalism, sociology, history, etc. What is the likely impact from the current wars, and how might our views of mental health change?