In a recent article in The Guardian, the topic of "moral injury" is discussed. "Moral injury" is a concept coined by Shira Maguen and some colleagues in a 2009 paper in which trauma of perpetrating or failing to prevent moral transgressions is discussed.
I have spent time in this blog and elsewhere on the difference between morals and ethics. Simply put, morals are primarily communal while ethics are primarily individual. Trauma is a negative dislocation. Thus a trauma can vary widely from physical to emotional to intellectual.
I have been interested in the accelerated rates of lasting trauma observed in the Vietnam War versus the Second World War. Some have posited that this difference might be due to the younger average age of fighters in the Vietnam War. Here Maugen's thesis might be useful.
The Second World War was viewed in moral terms, as a defense of "good" versus "evil." While every war is portrayed as such, the evidence of Germany's crimes were astonishing. As a result, if Maugen is correct, the act of killing another human, which is naturally a transgression and a trauma, would have been less traumatic due to its moral purpose.
The article in The Guardian describes special rituals, commemorations, singing and dancing used by communities in Kenya and Sudan to help returning warriors. As a result, their trauma levels are much lower. In the US, trauma levels are much higher. The article muses on the superior value of these communal activities. That certainly sounds correct and in line with the communal aspect of "moral injury."
I also think that it may point to a healing pathway for trauma in general. I had an experience with my Great Books class in which I shared personal information on a Zoom call. I have shared information in groups before, but the resulting empathy from the class caused a lasting internal shift for me in which I felt less isolated. Why was it so much more powerful? Somehow the negative dislocation of trauma has an isolative aspect which may be initially protective but harmful over time. Like some of these east African communities, the importance of this particular community to me may have made me feel intimately connected - a reumbilicalizing.
