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12 Jan 2009 05:17 pm
Mental Wounds, Ctd.
Hilzoy continues the PTSD Purple Heart debate:
...shedding blood is not a condition of eligibility for a Purple Heart: "A physical lesion is not required". That's a good thing: if shedding blood were a necessary condition for being eligible for a Purple Heart, then soldiers would not be eligible if their bones were broken in combat, or if they suffered internal organ damage, or if their lungs were destroyed by chemical weapons, so long as they did not actually bleed. And that would be insane. I really can't see any reason for this decision other than the idea that mental illness somehow isn't real, or isn't a real consequence of enemy action, or wouldn't have happened if only the soldier who got it had been tough enough. That's wrong, and it's needlessly cruel. Moreover, holding onto these false ideas about mental illness will not help the military to deal more effectively with the psychiatric problems of its members. And that harms everyone.
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