Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: In the Lake of the Woods & Its Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1582
Author(s):  
Ramtin Noor-Tehrani (Noor) Mahini ◽  
Erin Barth ◽  
Jed Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Tim O'brien ◽  
Lake Of The Woods ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Vietnam War Veterans

Award-winning author Tim O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969, when American combat troops were gradually withdrawn from the country. A closer look at his Vietnam war stories reveals that he indeed touched upon almost all issues or problems of American soldiers in this “bad” war; yet not many peer-reviewed authors or online literary analysis websites could identify and discuss them all. The purpose of this article is to address the war details in O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods and its historical perspective, so that middle and high school readers can understand the meaning behind Tim O'Brien's stories and know the entire big Vietnam War picture. Specifically, this article discusses the following issues that are raised by O’Brien in this novel: the Mỹ Lai Massacre and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Vietnam War veterans. In addition, the Mỹ Lai Massacre cover-up, forgotten heroes of Mỹ Lai, and soldiers’ moral courage are also presented.

scholarly journals Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: The Things They Carried & Its Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1283
Author(s):  
Ramtin Noor-Tehrani (Noor) Mahini ◽  
Erin Barth ◽  
Jed Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Tim O'brien ◽  
Self Mutilation ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Us ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
Almost All

Tim O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969, during the later part of the Vietnam War that can be called the “bad” or unwinnable war.  Based on his experience, O'Brien's writing about the Vietnam War in his award-winning fiction novels is always "bad," meaning that the war was terrible for American grunts like himself, his fellow soldiers, and Vietnamese civilians, with practically no good or inspiring stories. Nevertheless, O’Brien touches upon almost all problems of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, but not many peer-reviewed authors or online literary analysis websites could identify or discuss them all.  The purpose of this article is to discuss the war details in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and its historical perspective, so that young middle and high school readers can understand the meaning behind Tim O'Brien's writing about the Vietnam War. The goal is to summarize the entire big picture of the Vietnam War and to help students determine whether American soldiers’ actions, as described by Tim O’Brien, were morally right or wrong and were legal or forbidden according to the US law of war. The war-related issues that O’Brien mentioned in this novel are: boredom and meaningless death, abusive violence  toward Vietnamese noncombatants, drug use, in-fighting, thefts within barracks, grief, rage, self-mutilation, mutilation of enemy corpses, and senseless animal and civilian killings.

scholarly journals Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: Going after Cacciato & Its Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1397
Author(s):  
Ramtin Noor-Tehrani (Noor) Mahini ◽  
Erin Barth ◽  
Jed Morrow
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Tim O'brien ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
Friendly Fire ◽  
Almost All ◽  
War Stories ◽  
Wartime Experience

Being the only Vietnam War author on the English curriculum for American middle and high schools, Tim O’Brien skillfully mixes his real wartime experience with fiction in his various bestsellers and awarded novels.  All O'Brien's Vietnam War stories are always "bad," meaning that the war contains mostly sad and horrific experience for American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. A closer look at O’Brien’s war stories reveals that he indeed touches upon almost all issues the American GIs encountered during this war; nevertheless, not all online literary analysis websites and peer-reviewed authors can identify or call them all out. To assist middle and high school readers in understanding the meaning behind Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam War stories, the war details in Going After Cacciato and its historical perspective are discussed in this article. The war-related issues that O’Brien touched upon in this novel are: lack of purpose, the lower standards of the American troops (McNamara’s morons), desertion, lack of courage, friendly fire, fragging their own officers, and contemptuous attitude toward the Vietnamese, the very people they came to help and protect.

Factitious post-traumatic stress disorder revisited

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher F Fear
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Clinical Syndrome ◽  
Factitious Disorder ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Munchausen Syndrome ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Vietnam War Veterans

AbstractFactitious post-traumatic stress disorder, a variant of the psychological Munchausen syndrome, was first recognised in Vietnam war veterans but has not been described since. The case is described of a young man who claimed to have been involved in a fishingdisaster, feigning the symptoms to post-traumatic stress disorder to gain admission to hospital This appears to be a novel presentation of a Munchausen variant which has not been describedin connection with peace time disasters. It would appear that the psychopathology of factitious disorder, like that of other phenomena, such as delusions, is keeping pace with the views ofsocietyand current media concerns. This issue is discussed in the context of a review of recently reported variants of this interesting clinical syndrome.

scholarly journals CAM and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Hankey
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
System Function ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Nervous System Function ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Vietnam War Veterans

In the form of the Transcendental Meditation program CAM offers a method of eliminating deep-rooted stress, the efficacy of which has been demonstrated in several related studies. Any discussion of CAM and post-traumatic stress disorder should include a study of its application to Vietnam War Veterans in which improvements were observed on all variables, and several participants were able to return to work after several years of being unable to hold a job. The intervention has been studied for its impact on brain and autonomic nervous system function. It has been found to be highly effective against other stress-related conditions such as hypertension, and to improve brain coherence—a measure of effective brain function. It should be considered a possible ‘new and improved mode of treatment’ for PTSD, and further studies of its application made.

Physical comorbidities of post‐traumatic stress disorder in Australian Vietnam War veterans

2017 ◽  
Vol 206 (6) ◽  
pp. 251-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah C McLeay ◽  
Wendy M Harvey ◽  
Madeline NM Romaniuk ◽  
Darrell HG Crawford ◽  
David M Colquhoun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Vietnam War Veterans

scholarly journals Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
AISLINN MELCHIOR
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
Post Traumatic

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) made its first appearance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980, partly as a result of the ongoing treatment of veterans from the Vietnam War. Although PTSD is not only or even primarily a disorder caused by combat, combat is a regular trigger and my chief concern in what follows. Therefore I will not be examining such evidence as exists for the psychological traumas of civilians in the ancient world who were exposed to violence, rape, enslavement, or the execution of family members in the context of conquest. My focus is on the soldier.

Which biopsychosocial view of mental illness?

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-96
Author(s):  
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong ◽  
Jesse S. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Almost All

Biopsychosocial theories of mental illness claim that biological, psychological, and social factors are all central to every mental illness. This general approach cannot be assessed or employed properly without specifying the precise relation between mental illnesses and these three levels of understanding. This chapter distinguishes disjunctive, causal, explanatory, therapeutic (or treatment), and constitutive (or definitional) versions of biopsychosocial theories. However, all of these claims are uncontroversial and not distinctive of the biopsychosocial approach, except the constitutive claim. That constitutive claim is inaccurate, because almost all mental illnesses are and should be defined by their psychological symptoms instead of their biological or social causes. These lessons are applied to case studies of post-traumatic stress disorder, disinhibited social engagement disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and scrupulosity.

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