![]() ![]() We must not remain silent when we see the human suffering as a result of these wars. In all cultures, we know the traumatic effects will endure for generations within these families and even provide a pretext for a future war. This ethical obligation also applies to the clinicians serving patients in the nations with whom we are at war. We have an ethical obligation to speak out when we witness the gradual and unrelenting traumatization of the society in which we practice. Mental health clinicians and group and family therapists could have shortened that war had we exercised our moral authority and publicly called out the damage being done to our fellow citizens, our patients. military crusade in Afghanistan to remake in our image an ancient culture we could neither comprehend nor deeply respect. We just saw the collapse of a 20 year U.S. They continue to come to my office in ever increasing numbers. Their children and grandchildren suffered as well through the ineffable transmission of trauma unto the second and third generation. Many suffered from “moral injury”–feeling remorse that they participated in a cause that had no justifiable purpose. I never proselytized my patients with my opinions–but inevitably the wars always came home and entered my treatment room as a cause of mental suffering: Perhaps a son or a sister was a combatant or working for the military …Or a father or mother burdened with memories of war trauma… Or a veteran of one of the wars would come to alleviate the traumatic stress of having committed or witnessed acts of violence. In order to do that we must earn the trust of the families that come to us.įor most of my adult life I have been actively opposed to every foreign war the U.S. It is our chosen vocation to help heal the many ways that families can suffer. Every day we witness others struggle within the limits of their freedom and their fate–to make choices and try to comprehend the destiny that limits their choices. ![]() We have the extraordinary opportunity–by our extensive work in groups and families–to see in a small way the panorama of human behavior and the wide spectrum of action that our fellow human beings take as they live their lives. I believe we clinicians of group therapy and family therapy have a special role to play as human beings dedicated to the possibility of creating a world where freedom, justice, and equality abide not only in the families we treat but also in the world. ![]()
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