About this item

Stories of soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder dominate news coverage of the return from wars in the Middle East. On the surface, the stories call our attention to psychic trauma and the need for mental health services for veterans scratch that surface and we see that PTSD has morphed from a diagnostic category into a cultural trope with broad societal implications. In PTSD Diagnosis and Identity in Post-empire America, Jerry Lembcke exposes those implications. Lembcke reprises PTSDs formulation following the war in Vietnam, examining how its medical discourse provided a psychological alternative to the political interpretations of veterans opposition to the war psychiatrists said veteran dissent was cathartic, a form of acting-out.



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.