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MWSA Review
The power of literature to promote change in individuals and community has long been recognized. Reading or viewing art takes us out of our current situation and places us in other worlds. Returning to the everyday, we bring a perspective from that other world to bear on ourselves, making alternatives more available. Pat Pernicano and Kerry Haynes’s Healing Veteran Moral Injury: Using Metaphor and Story to Foster Hope and Connection builds on that fundamental premise.
The focus on veterans’ experiences that lead to trauma and moral injury is therefore appropriate in this guide to the process of healing. One should not forget, however, that injuries and recovery go on in our larger society as well. The accumulation of instances of events that emotionally handicap veterans should also not lead to the conclusion that all veterans face moral injury. Some who find their values contradicted in military experience and become “stuck” can achieve recovery on their own or with the help of close friends and family.
The many case studies of individual experience in this study, however, document the need for programs to be available in established agencies, private as well as in government. The accounts of change brought about by reading or writing alternative narratives is convincing. Bringing individuals to accept help is, of course, a key challenge; but that, too, is consistently addressed.
The authors point out that Moral Injury (MI) is not a diagnosis, but a condition. It is also to be distinguished from PTSD. While treatments for the two may overlap, this book focuses on the condition, less commonly understood and deserving recognition as a separate issue facing many veterans. While the examples of male MI tend to involve battle conditions and female MI often involve sexual assault, the book makes clear the causes are not exclusive to either gender.
Key components to healing MI include acceptance, forgiveness, guilt, blame, responsibility, confession, forgiveness, and sharing. There are worksheets for self-evaluation of these factors, and group activities to encourage acceptance of the condition and undertake recovery. A story about a cracked bowl illustrates brokenness and the possible paths to healing and returning to a productive life. Graphics like the "responsibility pie" also encourage itemizing the factors in moral injury and identifying those outside anyone’s control. Restoring wholeness requires patience after the typically lengthy time of denial and the acceptance of appropriate guilt.
The book includes extensive notes to scholarship on symptoms, reaction, and therapy of MI and related issues, particularly helpful to specialists in the field but also reassuring to anyone questioning the relevance of the condition to their own life.
Review by Michael Lund (May, 2025)
Author's Synopsis
Healing Veteran Moral Injury highlights the importance of story and metaphor in the change process and in trauma-related work.
Grounded in evidence-based practice and replete with clear, down-to-earth examples that foster empathy and understanding, Healing Veteran Moral Injury illustrates the ways in which building a sense of community can help restore trust and meaning-making. Chapters illustrate the power of stories and metaphors and help Veterans identify strategies for healing moral injury and posttraumatic growth. Clinicians and Veterans will come away from this book with tools for building connections, accepting what they cannot change, and developing a more accurate perception of responsibility.
Healing Veteran Moral Injury is intended both for mental health professionals and Veterans themselves as a tool for breaking the silence, pointing other Veterans toward hope and healing, and telling stories of moral pain with fortitude and courage.
Format(s) for review: Paper & Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—How to/Business
Number of Pages: 202
Word Count: 73288