memories of his own past, an angry, unpredictable father, and intrusive, inexplicable states of panic, rage, and despair.” (201) His dad tries to put memories together that occurred during the Vietnam War and goes through periods of anger and sadness.
“In the face of these overwhelming traumas, the capacity of an individual to think collapses. Symbolic functions—organizing memory into meaning through image and word, effectively integrating continuity and identity out of who you are and who you were before the traumatic events—are lost. These overwhelming effects from traumatic events cause regression to pre-symbolic and more primitive communications, both intrapsychically and within one’s most intimate relationships, such as parent to child.” (203) This relates to not only how an individual is able to move on in ordinary life after war or other trauma, but how the person might be forever changed and how he or she is able to establish or maintain relationships with family and friends. A person returning from war, or emerging from their own hometown that has been devastated by war, is supposed to go back to being “normal,” to tending to home and family and working to make a living. …show more content…
It might be a trigger like July 4 town fireworks reminding a soldier of gunfire, or the look of a foreigner from the country where the person fought that might incapacitate the veteran. The family member will feel like he or she doesn’t recognize this fearful, angry and isolated person and yearn for the veteran to be just as he or she was before going to war. Therefore, while much focus is rightfully on how a veteran returns from war fares, there should be support given to family as well on how they
“In the face of these overwhelming traumas, the capacity of an individual to think collapses. Symbolic functions—organizing memory into meaning through image and word, effectively integrating continuity and identity out of who you are and who you were before the traumatic events—are lost. These overwhelming effects from traumatic events cause regression to pre-symbolic and more primitive communications, both intrapsychically and within one’s most intimate relationships, such as parent to child.” (203) This relates to not only how an individual is able to move on in ordinary life after war or other trauma, but how the person might be forever changed and how he or she is able to establish or maintain relationships with family and friends. A person returning from war, or emerging from their own hometown that has been devastated by war, is supposed to go back to being “normal,” to tending to home and family and working to make a living. …show more content…
It might be a trigger like July 4 town fireworks reminding a soldier of gunfire, or the look of a foreigner from the country where the person fought that might incapacitate the veteran. The family member will feel like he or she doesn’t recognize this fearful, angry and isolated person and yearn for the veteran to be just as he or she was before going to war. Therefore, while much focus is rightfully on how a veteran returns from war fares, there should be support given to family as well on how they