In light of his experiences fighting in Iraq, veteran Tyler Boudreau will discuss PTSD and “moral injury” in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on November 5 at 7:00 pm.
His talk, “The Morally Injured,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. The library sponsor for this event is the Brattleboro Retreat. Sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Funded in part by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library; the Vermont Department of Libraries; and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The event is free and open to the public.
Boudreau served twelve years in the Marine Corps infantry, deployed to Iraq in 2004, and is the author of Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine. Boudreau told Martha Bebinger of WBUR in an interview,”We were always getting shelled, constant rocket and mortar attacks,” Boudreau says. “An IED, the roadside bomb, blew up right next to my vehicle and I was involved in some firefight that was pretty, you know, pretty intense.”
“It’s like this accumulation of presence and searching and patrolling and detaining people who, maybe they’re guilty, maybe they’re not. Bringing them back and putting them in locked rooms or in cages or putting bags over their heads and flex cuffs on the hands and all of these things that we do, day after day after day. This is what occupation looks like. Searching this house, searching that house, patrolling through the neighborhoods, questioning people.”
“I’m talking about the guilt one feels when you perpetrate violence against another one. Even if it’s justified. Even if it’s a clear-cut showdown and you won and nobody would ever, like, fault you,” he explained. “And yet, just for humanity’s sake, you feel some guilt. This goes on for a couple of years and then someone comes along and says ‘moral injury.’ And I say, ‘Yeah that makes so much more sense here.’ Now we have a way of talking about the moral impact, not strictly the traumatic impact. For more information see Tyler Boudreau’s website.
Johnathan Shay a Boston psychiatrist coined the term “Moral injury,” from his studies of veterans with PTSD in the 1990’s. It is defined as a condition that goes beyond PTSD and destroys the capacity of trust, increases domestic violence, and generally wrecks the ability to live a fulfilling life. It also may lead to suicidal feelings.
For more information contact Brooks Library by phone at 802-254-5290 ext 0, by email at info@brookslibraryvt.org, or on the web at brookslibraryvt.org. Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301. Location Library Main Room. The event is free and open to the public.
