The Cultural Development of U.S. Military Veteran Moral Injury and Moral Repair: A Phenomenological Study

• In Event: Critical and Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Historical Research

Abstract

The suicide rate in the United States military veteran population has reached epidemic proportions. An emerging area of academic and clinical interest, the study of moral injury and moral repair, offers a fresh view into this problem. Moral injury and moral repair are concepts and lines of research that posit morally charged circumstances and events (such as killing in combat) that violate one’s moral code may play a mediating role in military suicide rates. This paper reports the preliminary findings of a phenomenological study exploring moral injury and moral repair as experienced by 14 U.S. military veterans. The study was conducted through a sociohistorical psychological lens rooted in Vygotsky’s genetic law of cultural development.

Authors

• Lois DiNatale, The George Washington University

• Ellen Mary Scully-Russ, The George Washington University