"Mental Stress Training Is Planned for U.S. Soldiers"

This is a title taken straight from a headline on the New York Times home page. And my first reaction to it: Thank Goodness. Thank goodness these soldiers are finally getting some help so the 1/3 of them (according to the article) that develop psychological disorders due to war won't come home changed for the worse.

My second reaction was, of course, in the way of a true idealist: if we know that war disturbs the soldiers so much, doesn't that say something about the nature of war? Doesn't it mean that we should stop subjecting our citizens to these horrors unnecessarily? I just fail to see the point of war. I have strived to understand my whole life, and I generally come up with nothing. No rationalization that I find valid. But I also live in the real world somewhat, so I realize that blogging endlessly about the pointlessness of war is not very productive.

But as I continued reading the article (please note that all the factual/statistical information is from the article, so they get the credit), some other sentences popped out at me.

If you want to read along with me, the article is available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/18psych.html?_r=2&hp.

Reporter Benedict Carey writes, "The new program is to be introduced at two bases in October and phased in gradually throughout the service, starting in basic training. It is modeled on techniques that have been tested mainly in middle schools." UM WAIT. MIDDLE SCHOOLS??? Why are we using techniques tested on 13-year-olds to prevent soldiers who face death and destruction daily from contemplating suicide? I seriously, seriously hope these techniques work, but I really don't know how reliable these test results probably were. I mean I'm the first to defend the maturity of teenagers, but there is no way the average middle school student has developed psychological issues comparable to those of a weathered soldier.

One might point out then that these are preventative techniques, and the psychology of a middle schooler is not that different from only a slightly older adult. Still, I would think that the magnitude of the problems faced in the future would require stronger preventative psychology. Nonetheless, let's keep reading.

The next point Carey writes about is the emotional openness required to go through this training. Some worry the soldiers will resist being open becuase they are used to being tough and resilient. I am not a tough, independent person--I am actually quite emotional, so I would have no problem with this training and I can't see it through their eyes. But I do know, as one person quoted in the articles said, this seems like a much needed program. Controlling your emotions is a lot harder than just bottling them up or ignoring them, so in my eyes this training is making the soldiers tougher, more admirable people. And they should realize that.

The article goes on to say that this training will teach soldiers to speak the language of "resiliency," almost "like muscle memory — with practice you start to use them automatically." This is a cool idea--training your brain the same way math teachers try to train it to problem solve. Boot camp for your emotions. Sounds to me like a valid program that hopefully will succeed in lessening the psychological symptoms of war.

We can't treat the cause. This is the next best thing.