Customer Reviews

War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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I am a combat vet of the Viet Nam era. I purchased a copy of Dr.Tick's book WAR AND THE SOUL last week. I can't begin to express how deeply it affected me as a veteran, a father and as a man. Edward Tick has brought out into the open the essence of the problem with the aftereffects of war. We are of the "don't talk about it and it will just go away," generation. I'm referring to the loss or corruption of every mans' soul as a result of the horrors of war, and the lack of a true warrior class in America as DR. tick describes it. Like no other terror on earth, war is so traumatic that indeed one's soul may be lost forever. However, it does not have to be that way. We indeed may regain intimacy, trust and a purposeful life if treated as humans with souls, not like men having to be drugged with antidepressants to keep us away and out of public sight.
Edward Tick's book is from his soul, from many years of
providing psychotherapy to veterans and winning the way back from nightmares and terrors for them. He dares to practice psychotherapy in an intimate surrounding, never trying to be detached from the one he is serving. He has felt the wounds of the flesh and mind as closely as possible without actually being in the war. Detachment is not his style as is the norm in psychological therapy. That is a big reason his methods work. Combat vets know instinctively who to trust and that usually does not include psychotherapists that are just interested in
their job. They must be interested in the men and women they treat.
WAR AND THE SOUL touched my soul, made me cry and smile. I saw and felt the same fears and changing attitudes of vets fortunate to return to Viet Nam with Dr. Tick. Dr. Tick, indeed, helped me find my soul again and the warmth of my loving wife, intimacy long lost and a renewed vigor for life. I am a fortunate person for I have traveled back to Viet Nam twice with Dr. Tick and his book is true.
Sincerely,
Robert Cagle

It appears that Dr. Tick got in over his head. He started out using traditional psychotherapy to treat Vietnam Veterans suffering from PTSD. Fortunately he had the sense to realize that PTSD was more than a mental health issue and, seeing he was in over his head, he learned how to swim. The currents carried him far from shore, to places where he could see that behind the emotional wounds of his clients were spiritual wounds and that what needed healing were their souls, where such wounds are inflicted. He discovered ancient methods for healing such wounds, and adapted them to the current times. He also discovered that the impulse toward making war emerges from a deep and primitive place in the collective unconscious, and has more to do with initiation into noble and honorable spiritual warriorhood than the massive death and destruction which modern warfare has achieved. He concludes that war cannot be waged for power or domination without causing great spiritual harm to those who wage it. War can only be waged in an honorable fashion, with great respect for one's enemies and for the purpose of protecting of one's home and family from immediate threat, if such harm is to be avoided. This just might be the book to end all wars if enough of us pay attention to it.

As a peace activist from way back and also the father of a Marine who has had two tours of duty in Iraq, I found this book to touch my heart, open up conversation between my son and me and give me a better understanding of the struggles our vets face. A couple days after reading this I had a chance to talk about it with my Marine son and used the insights I had found here to open the deepest conversation we have had in years. The soul-dimension of war is seldom considered, but Tick's treatment makes it clear that there are real and important struggles being faced by vets from all our previous wars. I gained a wealth of knowledge and understanding, and highly recommend Tick's book to parents, spouses, children and friends of returning vets, as well as the vets themselves.

Back in the world.
Often within 24-48 hours.
It is over--
It is never over.


Now you are:
son--daughter
mom--dad
husband--wife
friend--lover
You are home.
It is over--
It is never over.

Rank does not matter anymore. The decisions are yours now. Yet those with whom you served are forever, inextricably, a part of you.

When you went in country, wherever that was, the you who went in was a different you than the you who came back to the world. That you, the you of innocence, did not come home; couldn't possibly come home, having come to know what the survivor you knows, what the survivor you has experienced.

A new you, an infinitely more complicated you; a you of lost innocence, at almost every level, has come home.

And home looks and feels different.
And everyone looks different.
And you have all changed.

You cringe, or hit the ground, at noises commonplace while they carry on with the everyday of the life they know.
Shadows lurk, scurry into and out of the dark, as if a dark collage artist were pasting over the new reality you are experiencing with the old you had hoped to have left behind.
You wake up screaming.
Sit facing doors.
And no matter what you wear, you still feel naked, weak, without your weapon sleeping next to you, without the powerfully protective feeling of your weapon in your hand.

You are home; yet still adrift in sand; yet still treading on the floor of the jungle with the thickly twisted canopy keeping out the light; yet still crawling into dank, stinking holes in the mountains. You are home; yet in a seemingly parallel universe that weaves in and out of the world you are told that you live in now; a fluctuating Twilight Zone, beyond even Serling's imagination, where apple pies morph into Daisy Cutters, where the crunch of a nut cracker on a walnut amps into an IED exploding under, around, next to you.

Welcome Home.

Dr. Edward Tick has an awesome gift for you--a road map that will put you on the path to re-connect your conflicting parallel worlds into one that is manageable for you.

Any soldier, any civilian, who has known war has known it as the experience of living on the edge, of knowing life most sharply honed while death and destruction steam, reek, explode all around; but the modern soldier also is burdened at soul level with the very real possibility of war's escalation to the ultimate destruction. That burden, like all the others, is also carried by his soul.

Dr. Tick's War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder explores, unearths, de-mystifies the myths of war. Its wisdom is applicable to the veterans of any nation or time. It brings home war's verities, and it will help to bring you home, as with him you unravel what you are feeling, why you are feeling it; find that the others who were there feel what you feel, and know what you know--illuminates what those at home have to be brought to comprehend.

War and the Soul will help you understand where all those missing soul pieces have gone. It will guide you in fetching them back. It will make you know that what you are feeling is a normal, not an abnormal, reaction to a chaos of war unleashed on your body, mind, soul, and spirit.

With clarity in dissecting the myths of war; by sharing Veterans' stories, observations, experiences, and nightmares, Dr. Tick helps guide you a to a new place where you can understand the impact of war on you and begin to step out of its chaos. If you want to come home, War and the Soul is the road map you need.

Yes, you need physical, mental therapy to leave the chaos of war for the order of "normal" life. But deep healing calls for soul and spiritual re-alignment. For that, Dr. Tick is there with cultural myths, with compassion and understanding, with the cultural rituals necessary for re-initiation into society. He is the spiritual shaman, the soul reviver whom you need to begin your real journey home.

War and the Soul is a book every soldier, every veteran, every civilian needs to read--and tell others about. It brings a new perspective to war, and to the healing of those we send to fight. We--all of us--need to understand these things if any soldier anywhere is ever to truly come home.

Dr. Edward Tick has written a book that gathers wisdom from our mythic ancestors about healing the aftermath of war. As a Viet Nam Veteran I have suffered with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD and Dr. Ticks book War and the Soul has been the only out of many books I have read that truly address the fact that PTSD is a wound that occurs in the soul of the soldier. I have needed this kind of healing for forty years. During the time of reading the book I wept too many times to count. I have yellow highlighted more than half the book. I am a practicing psychotherapist and believe that the essence of what is needed to heal our veteran's wounds has been excavated out of history and illuminated by Dr. Tick. His articulate understanding and collection of experiences with veterans makes his work invaluable to those who have the courage to recover their souls. I believe as Dr. Tick does that PTSD is an identity disorder. Dr. Tick proposes that the ancient role of warrior is one our veterans need today in order to bring meaning and direction back into their lives. In today's world warrior are intensely needed.

Ed Tick has written an important new book, one that stirred up the deepest emotions in me, helping me remember where and who I was in those Vietnam years. It is wonderful the way he reminds us that there is another way to bring back soldiers and help them re-enter ordinary society: the way of indigenous peoples, with ceremony, ritual, prayer, and rites of self-discovery. If we followed the traditions of our more ancient ancestors, as Ed encourages us to do, we would turn soldiers into spiritual warriors who could help heal not only themselves but our society which also exhibits the worse signs of shell shock and war neurosis. As we watch men and women return from Iraq, we need a book like this now more than ever. . . so that they, and those of us at home, can realize our need for true spiritual warriors.

I got this for a friend suffering from PTSD from the Vietnam war and read it before giving it to him. The author does a magnificant job explainly why we, as a society need to address why we still have war and warriors. If we can't stop war (or until we do)we certainly are compelled to treat these warriors in a special fashion which entails bearing some of the burdens these warriors suffer for us. We might not agree with the policies of administrations but the soldiers who suffer the consequences deserve our respect and admiration and especially our emotional support for doing their duty. Every politician who has the ability to send our troops into battle should be required to read this book (and do some counseling!)to fully understand the emotional toll of war. Amazing that a therapist would be willing to look beyond "pills and talking" to see that PTSD is a soul disorder. Kudos to Mr. Tick for caring enough to do so.

Edward Tick's work is unique and dynamic. The use of Joseph Campbell like writing was riviting and powerful. As a clinician and wife of a war veteran, his book is one of the best out there and offers a different and important look at the subject.

Dr. Edward Tick's new book War and the Soul will have a tremendous impact on the treatment of PSTD. Before his ground breaking book, the treatment for PTSD was learning to cope with the symptoms and medication. For Tick healing involves growing the soul big enough to carry the traumatic wounds. He also brings PTSD beyond the individual to a national disorder. "We speak of the soul of a nation. Is PTSD our country's soul sickness?"
Tick does not merely theorize, but gives us a path to follow to grow our soul. PTSD for Tick is an identity disorder, one's sense of self disappeared in the traumatic events of war or I would posit any severe trauma. He uses the image of how a warriorhood is attained. He devotes three chapter to the steps toward warriorhood. First, purification and cleansing, second the healing power of story and thirdly, restitution.
Ed Tick's book will make a major impact on the healing journey out of PTSD. I know this book hits the mark in the centre, both personally and clinically. This is a must read.

This is a thoughtful and amazing book. In this amazing book, "War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder," psychologist Tick discusses how modern war affects the psyches of the human beings -- no matter how strong and resilient-- who fight them and how healing happen.

He recognizes the fact that wars are soul-wounding and that the healing is more than pills or pushing the memories away. He prescribes mythic storytelling, Native American ceremony and the involvement of the communityt to repair the wounds so that the veteran can once again feel "home" after immersed in the horror of war.

He has much to say how older veterans have a role in healing younger veterans and how the community and clergy can respond in healing ways. In Racine, Wis., I am very proud to sponsor his informational programs and healing retreats at Lake House Health & Learning Center.

Thank you, Ed, for your brilliant and sincere work.