When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans - Softcover

Caplan, Paula J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 150403676X ISBN 13: 9781504036764

Publisher: Open Road Distribution, 2016

Synopsis

Why are those devastated by war or other military experiences called mentally ill? The standard treatment of therapy and drugs can actually be harmful, and huge numbers of suffering veterans from earlier eras demonstrate its inadequacy.
 
Most of us are both war-illiterate and military-illiterate. Caplan proposes that we welcome veterans back into our communities and listen to their experiences, one-on-one. Beginning a long overdue national discussion about the realities of war and the military will help us bridge the dangerous chasms between veterans and nonveterans.
 

About this title

About the Author

Paula J. Caplan is an award-winning nonfiction author, playwright, and filmmaker; advocate for veterans, women, and psychiatric survivors; activist for various social justice issues; and affiliate of Harvard University’s DuBois Institute in the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. She created Welcome Johnny and Jane Home, which pairs any veteran with a nonveteran simply to listen to what the veteran wants to say. Visit listen2veterans.org for more information. She produced the award-winning documentary film, “Is Anybody Listening?” about the divide between veterans and nonveterans and what can be done about it (isanybodylisteningmovie.org). She blogs at paulajcaplan.net, whenjohnnyandjanecomemarching.weebly.com, and on psychologytoday.com.
 

From Publishers Weekly

It's a grim irony: too many American soldiers return from duty and fall into homelessness, addiction, and thoughts of suicide, yet their crazy behavior might just be the sanest response possible to the horrors of war. What's really crazy, says Harvard psychologist Caplan, is the belief that only a psychologist or psychiatrist can help these suffering souls. Caplan (The Myth of Women's Masochism) delivers a compelling argument that society has "psychiatrized" these vets' normal response to the horrors of war, with the result that many are not receiving effective care. Caplan depicts a military bureaucracy that sweeps vets into the overarching category of the mentally ill; she cites the case of one war-weary vet who became "more depressed about dealing with the than anything that happened in Iraq." Helping, Caplan says, is as simple—and as difficult—as not turning away when vets speak of their experiences, but rather listening attentively and nonjudgmentally. Some readers may be impatient with Caplan's attacks on a "psychiatrized" society or her belief that listening to veterans will somehow bring an end to war, but she makes an important and welcome call for average citizens to take responsibility for our veterans. (Apr.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Open Road Distribution
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 150403676X
• ISBN 13: 9781504036764
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 358