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Blame 'Vicarious' PTSD

Trauma is infectious, Essig writes, and therapists can catch it

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 6, 2009 10:03 AM CST

(Newser) – When Todd Essig learned the Fort Hood shooter “was an Army psychiatrist who treats post traumatic stress disorder, himself on the cusp of deployment, I thought, ‘I’m not surprised.’” Why? Because there is a documented transfer of trauma disorders from sufferers to caregivers, dubbed “vicarious traumatization.” For some who provide care to soldiers, “the line between their experience and yours starts to blur until, well, something like what happened at Fort Hood” happens.

Nidal Malik Hasan felt like he had already been deployed, Essig writes on True/Slant, and when confronted with the fact of actual deployment overseas, he snapped. “The shooter was himself wounded by war, perhaps fatally so, well before he first pulled a trigger.” And let’s not mince words: “Those killed and wounded by his actions at Fort Hood are as much casualties of war as are all our other neighbors, friends, and family so far killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

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Nidal Malik Hasan. (AP Photo)

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Understanding what happened is not to excuse anything that was done, far from it, but understanding may help prevent subsequent and possibly preventable tragedies. - Todd Essig

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 21 comments

bleepbleep61

Nov 9, 2009 12:17 PM CST

It is extremely sad that every day in this world there seems to be more and more and more people that are aggravated / upset / pissed off enough to commit such violent acts If this nut was a psychiatrist he should have had the sense to shrink his own mind and if things were that bad he should have just quietly taken his own life and left the innocent victims out of his problems .

Snarfeh

Nov 8, 2009 2:27 AM CST

I know, Rocket, and I am not knocking that in Christians or any other faith....just pointing out that it is something they say in casual conversation, not just during terrorist acts. There are people, though, who associate that phrase only with terrorist acts committed by muslims.

schmidtkoff

Nov 7, 2009 5:27 AM CST

excuses, excuses, excuses. not. there is no vicarious ptsd here. is this a case of transference? then he had no right to be the psychiatrist. PTSD? he never had combat and feared getting engaged in it. probably because he feared retribution from fellow muslims on foreign (familiar) soil. It seems that he was not able to go against his beliefs and countrymen. not saying this is wrong, but it is ok to have your beliefs, but once you have signed on to the military of the united states of America, you have chosen your allegiance. If you renege, complain and whine, and try to denigrate the country you pledged to protect than you have no right to the freedoms of this country. you are a traitor. plain and really quite simple.

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True/Slant (Source Grid »)

Crime & Courts • US

psychiatry • PTSD • mass shootings • Iraq war • Afghanistan war • trauma • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder • Fort Hood • Nidal Malik Hasan

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Blame 'Vicarious' PTSD