Customer Reviews

Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The relevance today of this book is uncomfortably urgent.
I write this review as an israeli however have no desire to use this review as a platform for political opinions. I (like most members of the first world) am busy and concentrate primarily on daily chores. I am not a political activist. I just want to do my work well, go home, play with my children, get the dinner on the table.
However, I need to scream out the importance that Coleman's book focuses on. War- having our husbands, our children, the teachers of our children at schools and so on, living in a situation that effects everyone. That screws up everyone.
We witness the escalation of violence and stress and usually sit back and tsk tsk tsk.
This needs to be addressed and Flashback makes one look directly at this reality. It is much more actual and pertinent to our society than we like to think. In Israel and undoubtedly in the u.s. too, I notice a steady devaluation of human life whilst going along happily with my daily activities.
and the affliction of PTSD.. It isn't a "sexy" or popular topic and in this book Coleman speaks directly, clearly. Approaching the effects of the syndrome via the history and hindsight of Vietnam is central to attaining a perspective that accentuates the relevance, the danger and the fear I have today.

With heart and intelligence, this books explores the multigenerational fallout of many veterans' experience of war. The shrapnel still flies.
From first person narrative to third person expertise...the book engages, informs and infuriates.

Coleman brings to light the history, causes, and long term impact of war induced PTSD. Her use of first-hand accounts from those who have lost veterans to suicide are an important part of the book, bringing an intimate human reality to the psychological struggles she describes. Coleman cites research from many angles to try to create a clear understanding of PTSD, and focuses especially well on why the Vietnam war was "different" from other wars in it's impact on soldiers.

I also strongly recommend Col. Dave Grossman's "On Killing" as an excellent book with a similar goal--understanding the psychological impact of war on the men who fight it.

FLASHBACK: POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, SUICIDE, AND THE LESSONS OF WAR comes from the author's own experience of marrying a young Vietnam vet who eventually killed himself. He suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder that at the time was little known: while today it's better known, Coleman here has made it her personal mission to portray techniques for battling the disorder, turning a research project into a series of applied strategies essential for any military family. Case histories of other experiences blend with damning evidence of the government's failure to properly respond to and treat the disorder.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I read this book to gather information about 2 items:
- Coping mechanisms families use with members struggling with PTSD
- How families interpret why the member committed suicide.

This book does provide information and examples for these, it also possesses a significant amount of political commentary. If you wish to learn more about PTSD, better resources exist. This book definitely should be read, but keep in mind the author filter information through her lens.

The tales of mental suffering Penny Coleman relates are sad, and I have no doubt they are true. They are certainly heartfelt, understandable given that she endured life with a PTSD-suffering husband. Clearly this book consumed her, which a book on this topic should. However, her left-leaning politics get in the way of her points. Statements such as sexual abuse and physical violence are the norm for American women come right out of the N.O.W. playbook and cry out for verification, yet she offers just one person's opinion. Her brief foray into the Civil War reveals her absence of knowledge in that area. The symptoms Jacob Da Costa described for "irritable heart" could have been caused by anything from anxiety to cardio-vascular conditions, but they do not describe PTSD. She mis-cites Eric T. Dean's Shook Over Hell and turns execution into the standard outcome for Civil War deserters. The truth is that, of the 201,000 Union deserters reported, only a small fraction of 1% faced execution. (Thanks to Dr. Thomas Lowry's work on courts-martial, definitive evidence exists to make that statement.) Dean was actually talking about the reactions of men on burial details. Rather oddly, she cites an Australian doctor that the Civil War reported 145,000 cases of constipation. I have personally read more than 5,000 federal pension records and at least as many military records and have encountered exactly two reported cases of constipation, both memorable by their unusual nature. Neither Ms. Coleman's nor the Australian doctor's source was the Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War. I do not believe this claim, which adds to my distrust of Ms. Coleman's conclusions.

That she feels strongly about her case is not in doubt, and she presents it well. But she has to temper emotion with facts. We all concur with her and foreword author Jonathan Shay's hopes that war will end and mankind be spared from further suffering. As Alan Jay Lerner wrote, "Wouldn't it be loverly?" If only everyone in the world was a pacifist.

As the wife of a returning combat veteran, I was looking for some help understanding what he was going through. Instead, what I found was a lot of caustic comments and when I read that her ultimate solution was to just not have war, I closed the book.