Submit your Narrative
Moral Injury: a term that has emerged in discussions about veterans processing the aftermath of war and military service is “moral injury.” Moral injury involves the transgression of an individual’s moral beliefs or ethical code, which can result in a serious “inner conflict” or schism within the self. Psychologists like Dr. Edward Tick, author of War and the Soul and the founder of the organization “Soldier’s Heart,” have referred to moral injury as a “soul wound.” As Syracuse Veterans’ Writing group member Don Western said of moral injury, you “saw wrong, did wrong, or didn’t stop wrong.” Keeping in mind the prevailing definition(s) of moral injury, make sense of the concept in your own terms. Write about a specific time in your combat experiences or experiences with the military where “you saw wrong, did wrong, didn’t stop wrong.”
How do you make sense of that experience now?
And what do you feel are the long-term effects of that experience as you think back on it?