Vietnam War Memory Trauma Essay

rather than a baby. By forcing him to remember what happened, the psychologist helped Dr. Pierce to recover. “The notion that trauma “is not locatable in the simple violent or original event in an individual’s past, but rather in the way that its very unassimilated nature—the way it was precisely not known in the first instance—returns to haunt the survivor later on. However, even as it is unavailable for conscious inspection, the memory of the event returns later to express itself repeatedly in hallucinations, flashbacks, nightmares, and/or nervous disorders, especially in circumstances reminiscent of the original experience.” (Long 55) People often try to forget trauma because it is something painful that happened in someone’s life. The memory may be in the back of your brain, which is why you may not remember, but it is still there. Memories may be recalled through hallucinations or flashbacks that remind the person of the experience. The article “Civilian Women at War: Psychological Impact Decades After the Vietnam War” by Lynne McCormack, talks about how women were psychologically changed by the Vietnam War. She found that women had higher chances of PTSD from viewing trauma involving others. Some women involved in the Vietnam War were …show more content…
Researchers argued that 19.7% showed lifetime PTSD, which 9.1% having symptoms 12 years after the Vietnam War. The research states that only 5.4% are currently suffering from PTSD. (McCormack 448)
It was hard for women to transition from the war zone back to home. Women no longer carried weapons that were used as protection and had to use their own self defense back at home. (McCormack 449) Women are traditional caregivers in society, so those who returned home and suffered from PTSD might have had more difficult familial relationships than men with PTSD since men are historically not viewed as nurturers and strong