Product Description

In this strikingly original and groundbreaking book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer's Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31474 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 246 pages

Amazon.com
Shay works from an intriguing premise: that the study of the great Homeric epic of war, The Iliad, can illuminate our understanding of Vietnam, and vice versa. Along the way, he compares the battlefield experiences of men like Agamemnon and Patroclus with those of frontline grunts, analyzes the berserker rage that overcame Achilles and so many American soldiers alike, and considers the ways in which societies ancient and modern have accounted for and dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder---a malady only recently recognized in the medical literature, but well attested in Homer's pages. The novelist Tim O'Brien, who has written so affectingly about his experiences in combat, calls Shay's book "one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam war." He's right.

From Publishers Weekly
Shay is a psychiatrist specializing in treating Vietnam veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress syndrome. In this provocative monograph, he relates their experiences to Homer's portrait of Achilles in The Illiad. War, he argues, generates rage because of its intrinsic unfairness. Only one's special comrades can be trusted. The death of Patroklos drove Achilles first into passionate grief, then into berserk wrath. Shay establishes convincing parallels to combat in Vietnam, where the war was considered meaningless and mourning for dead friends was thwarted by an indifferent command structure. He convincingly recommends policies of unit rotation and unit "griefwork"--official recognition of combat losses--as keys to sustaining what he calls a moral existence during war's human encounters. The alternatives are unrestrained revenge-driven behavior, endless reliving of the guilt such behavior causes and the ruin of good character. Shay's ideas merit attention by soldiers and scholars alike.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Narratives from Vietnam veterans, excerpts from Homer's Iliad, and quotes from the Bible are here used to compare combat during the Vietnam War and the time of the Iliad, providing a scholarly book about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is estimated that a quarter of a million Vietnam veterans suffer from PTSD today. Although this work will be a bit difficult for those not versed in Homer's epic poem, the comparisons vividly show the effects of PTSD. For serious researchers on the psychology of PTSD, this book provides an intriguing approach. Educated lay readers, students, and scholars interested in the Vietnam war will want to consider this extraordinary perspective on the problem of PTSD. Recommended for serious psychology and literature collections.
- H. Robert Malinowsky, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

I am not too sure...
about some of the quotes of American soldiers Shay repeated in this book. A few of the incidents related have some basis in fact I am sure and some are stretched by the individuals for effect. However, the comparason between Achilles and the modern warrior is spot on.

I just wish I had seen this thrity-five or so years ago instead of struggling for so long looking for answers. I still don't have "answers" but I do have a better understanding of some of what I have had to deal with after serving in Marine infantry from October, 1967 to April 1970 in Viet Nam.

Thersites in Amazon
Before buying this book and above all before taking it seriously, note the three pages devoted to it in Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History, by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley. According to these authors, Shay failed to check any of the veterans' stories he relates, swallowed much absurdity whole, and is consequently a poor guide to the psychological toll of the Vietnam war.

A place to start
As a student in high school with a interest in Psychology, I found this book helpful. This is because I will be joining the Army and will encounter this is my field as a psychologist. It was very interesting to see the symptoms during the Trojan war as well in the Vietnam conflict. It shows teh reader what this men faced and what was asked of them and what they got in return. More importantly it shows the true face of what a soldier could go through and what his may do jsut to survive in a new environment. It was helpful to show the signs that this is happening as if a combat officer read it, he would be able to sight it before it got beyond repair. Excellent book and an excellent author.