In its second decade of continuous war, our country has become painfully aware of the suffering caused to soldiers and veterans by traumatic events, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Less well known is moral injury, the suffering caused by the actions of soldiers that violate their deeply held moral beliefs, resulting in powerful guilt, shame, and self-attack. Our speakers, an active duty counterintelligence officer and a psychologist-psychoanalyst who helped create a treatment program for families of military members and veterans, discuss the profound effects moral injury can have on soldiers and veterans as they return from war.

This presentation is designed to help the participant:

1. Compare and contrast moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
2. Integrate understandings of moral injury into clinical practice.
3. Analyze psychodynamic and existential-humanistic views of moral injury and PTSD

Presenters:

Lieutenant Colonel Douglas A. Pryer is an active-duty counterintelligence officer who has been deployed to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Over the last decade he has written extensively on the ethical and human dimensions of modern war. He has published one book, The Fight for the High Ground: The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-April 2004 and numerous essays in military and other publications.

Jaine Darwin, Psy.D., ABPP is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, and the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. She is a clinical supervisor at the Victims of Violence Program, Cambridge Health Alliance. From 2004-2012, she co-directed a program she co-founded that provided pro bono mental health services to military families and veterans.

Moderator:

Stephen Soldz, Ph.D., Cert. Psya. is on the faculty at BGSP and is the Director of the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development. He is a past President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility. He has been an active participant in the controversy regarding the roles of psychologists in U.S. interrogations nad other national security activities.

Price & Credit

No Charge or $20 for 2 CE Credits

For those interested, there will be an Informational Open House after the event at 12:45pm. Click here to sign up. Note: You will  not lose your progress in this windown.