Attachment Theory and Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy for Vietnam Veterans

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-306
Author(s):  
Laura Meyer ◽  
Ann Sartori

AbstractThe persistence of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans of the Vietnam War warrants an exploration of new treatment approaches, such as equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP). The purpose of this study was to use open-ended interviews to explore five Vietnam veterans’ perceptions of their bond with an equine partner duringEFPand how it influences their behavior andPTSDsymptoms. Questions addressed their relationships with their equine partners, including its development and impact on their interpersonal relationships. Attachment Theory provided a framework for understanding the four main themes that emerged from analysis of the responses: positive changes in thoughts and behaviors, veterans’ beliefs about horses’ cognitions and emotions, emotions and emotional regulation, and interpersonal and interspecies relationships. The authors concluded thatEFPmay support personal growth and healing because horses serve as attachment figures, provide a secure base for emotional exploration, and encourage non-verbal communication.

Author(s):  
Bruce P. Dohrenwend ◽  
Nick Turse ◽  
Thomas J. Yager ◽  
Melanie M. Wall

Surviving Vietnam: Psychological Consequences of the War for U.S. Veterans presents a unique combination of historical material, military records of combat exposure, clinical diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and interviews with representative samples of veterans surveyed both a little over decade after the war’s conclusion in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS), and again nearly four decades after the war’s conclusion in the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (Longitudinal Study). It focuses specifically on veterans’ war-zone experiences and the development in some of PTSD, a relatively new and controversial diagnosis. The monograph begins with a brief history of the Vietnam war that provides context for the discussions of the relevance to their mental health outcomes of the severity of veterans’ exposure to combat, their personal involvement in harm to civilians and prisoners, their race/ethnicity, and their military assignments. It discusses nurses’ experiences in Vietnam and the psychological impact on families of veterans’ chronic war-related PTSD. The monograph then examines factors affecting surveyed veterans’ post-war readjustment, including the effects of changing public attitudes toward the war and the veterans’ own appraisals of the impact of the war on their lives after the war. It concludes by discussing the policy implications of its research findings.


Author(s):  
Patrick Hagopian

The meaning of the Vietnam War has enduringly divided Americans in the postwar period. In part because the political splits opened up by the war made it an awkward topic for conversation, Vietnam veterans felt a barrier of silence separating them from their fellow citizens. The situation of returning veterans in the war’s waning years serves as a baseline against which to measure subsequent attempts at their social reintegration. Veterans, as embodiments of the experience of the war, became vehicles through which American society could assimilate its troubled and troubling memories. By the 1980s, greater public understanding of the difficulties of veterans’ homecoming experiences—particularly after the recognition in 1980 of the psychiatric condition, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—helped accelerate the efforts to recognize the service and sacrifices of Americans who fought in Vietnam through the creation of memorials. Because the homecoming experience was seen as crucial to the difficulties which a substantial minority suffered, the concept emerged that the nation needed to embrace its veterans in order to help restore their well-being. Characteristic ways of talking about the veterans’ experiences coalesced into truisms and parables: the nation and its veterans needed to “reconcile” and “heal”; America must “never again” send young men to fight a war unless the government goes all-out for victory; protesters spat on the veterans and called them “baby killers” when they returned from Vietnam. Strategists debated what the proper “lessons” of the Vietnam War were and how they should be applied to other military interventions. After the prevalent “overwhelming force” doctrine was discarded in 2003 in the invasion of Iraq, new “lessons” emerged from the Vietnam War: first came the concept of “rapid decisive operations,” and then counterinsurgency came back into vogue. In these interrelated dimensions, American society and politics shaped the memory of the Vietnam War.


1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 600-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Grayson ◽  
Richard P. Marshall ◽  
Matthew Dobson ◽  
Brian I. O'toole ◽  
Ralph J. Schureck ◽  
...  

Objective: The objective of the present paper is to present comprehensive models of the current psychosocial morbidity of Australian Vietnam veterans. Seldom has research in this area attempted to ‘untangle’ direct and indirect influences on current functioning via possible pre-army, Vietnam and homecoming pathways. Method: The Australian Vietnam Veterans' Health Study gathered data on a sample of 641 veterans throughout Australia drawn randomly from army Vietnam tour lists of the era. The data arose from interview and army records of the era, and fall into four temporal categories: pre-army, Vietnam service, homecoming after Vietnam, and current state. Path analysis models of the veterans' current psychological morbidities and social wellbeing are used to identify direct aetiological influences of earlier era constructs on current state, free of confounding by indirect (often selection) effects. Results: Our results indicate that psychological morbidity (particularly post-traumatic stress disorder) is largely influenced by combat and poor homecoming experiences, although pre-military characteristics do play some direct roles in symptomatology. Social dysfunction measures show smaller effects of the Vietnam War, which may be accounted for by an indirect association with Vietnam-related psychological morbidity. Some social measures show evidence of compensatory influences of combat, high combat leading to social dysfunction because of morbidity, but simultaneously being associated with healthier social disposition (possibly because of increased ex-service activity). Conclusions: For Australian Vietnam veterans, combat-related and homecoming effects persist on a range of psychosocial endpoints 20–30 years after exposure. These effects are not explicable in terms of veterans' pre-Vietnam characteristics.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Watson

The origins of attachment theory and the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are described. Four types of child–parent attachment relationships—secure, insecure/anxious, insecure/ambivalent, and insecure/disorganized—are outlined along with the ways each type might manifest itself in the classroom. A longitudinal study, conducted by Alan Sroufe and his colleagues, of the development and effects on learning and interpersonal relationships of different child–parent attachment relationships is described. Teachers too have a history of attachment relationships that can affect how they relate to their students. The chapter describes adult attachment and how one’s attachment history might, positively or negatively, affect one’s ability to build positive, nurturing relationships with students. Specific examples of ways teachers can offset the negative effects of a student’s or their own history of insecure attachment are described.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7263
Author(s):  
Aaron Rillo-Albert ◽  
Unai Sáez de Sáez de Ocáriz ◽  
Antoni Costes ◽  
Pere Lavega-Burgués

The education of pleasant interpersonal relationships is one of the great challenges of modern physical education. Learning to live together sustainably is also learning to transform conflicts and the negative emotions elicited by them. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the GIAM pedagogical model (of the Motor Action Research Group) through cooperation-opposition traditional sporting games with competition in the presence of motor conflicts (conflict transformation; relational well-being) and on emotional regulation (management of negative emotions; emotional well-being). Empirical research was carried out using an associative strategy (explanatory study) involving 222 secondary school students (Mage = 14.86; SD = 0.65). A seven-session pedagogical intervention was carried out based on a championship using the Marro (Prisoner’s Bar) game. The students answered two validated questionnaires of socio-emotional well-being, the Games and Emotions Scale (GES-II) and the Motor Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ), at three phases during the experience (beginning, middle, and end). The findings showed that, through the GIAM model, motor conflicts and the intensity of negative emotions were reduced. It was found that conflicts and negative emotions are part of the same phenomenon and that through an appropriate pedagogical program it is possible to turn them into experiences of socio-emotional well-being.


Author(s):  
Marina Muñoz-Rivas ◽  
Ana Bellot ◽  
Ignacio Montorio ◽  
Rosa Ronzón-Tirado ◽  
Natalia Redondo

Emotional dysregulation is a construct that has drawn substantial attention as a transdiagnostic contributing factor to the loss of health. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a term used to describe physical, psychological, or sexual assault of a spouse or sexual partner. The aim of the study was to determine the variability of emotional dysregulation among women with different types of IPV revictimization and post-traumatic stress. The cross-sectional survey included 120 women attended by the Integrated Monitoring System of Gender Violence of Madrid, Spain, due to a gender violence complaint. The presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (DSM 5 criteria), emotional dysregulation (Emotional Processing Scale (EPS)), childhood trauma, and type of revictimization were evaluated. Cluster analysis found three profiles of emotional regulation: Emotionally Regulated, Avoidance/Non-Impoverished, and Emotional Overwhelm. The results showed that the Emotional Overwhelm group was characterized by a general dysregulation of emotional experiences and a greater intensity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. In addition, women who have suffered several episodes of IPV by different partners showed a differential pattern of emotional regulation than the rest of the victims that entailed greater psychopathology. Findings confirm that emotional dysregulation is a critical pathway to the decrease of health among IPV victims.


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