Book Review of Fields of Combat by Finley
By Erin P. Finley
Cornell Academy Press, 2012. 240pp.
Finley'south portrayal of the difficulties of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq elegantly interweaves narratives and assay. Cartoon on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in San Antonio, Texas, involving 133 study participants (62 of which were veterans), Finley conveys her bulletin through the construction of 6 narratives that "represent composites of several individuals who participated in the inquiry" (thirteen). The use of composites is a methodological technique to protect the privacy of research participants. This proves particularly important in Finley's study given the sensitive nature of these private'south service in the war machine and/or in their anxiety over receiving a diagnosis of psychological injury. Adam, Brian, Chris, Derek, Jesse, and Tony all have unique stories to tell near what compelled them to join the military (honor, respect, bravery, hardship, aspirations for a better future), the traumas they experienced as soldiers on the forepart lines (abiding hyper vigilance, temporary paralysis and incontinence from sheer terror, loss of friends, loss of a limb, the murder of a child), and the hardships they experienced in returning dwelling house to negotiate their new identities as war veterans. It is through these individual narratives that Finley deconstructs some of the preconceptions of PTSD symptoms and sufferers – the extreme and unanticipated violence associated with PTSD, the social isolation as a consequence, the link to specific indigenous groups, the shame experienced past PTSD sufferers and the related idea that the machismo of military culture contributes to delayed treatment and increased suffering – revealing that PTSD sufferers and symptoms are varied, various and intimately influenced past our civilisation(s). The book conspicuously distills various historical and contemporary views of combat-related PTSD, and examines how these perspectives and definitions are internalized and responded to. Finley notes that veterans' personal experiences of PTSD and the cultural politics that surround and shape those experiences are interrelated: "Gainsay trauma (the personal) may occur during state of war (the political) but is unavoidably shaped by the significant of the event to the individual (the personal), a meaning that is partly the production of a shared vocabulary for the describing experience (the cultural)" (158).
Finley'due south portraits of state of war offer a perspective of an evolving American warrior – a civilian, turned soldier, and and so veteran. It is this progression of fourth dimension in service and the irresolute perspectives of cocky and illness that structures the volume. The first half focuses primarily on narratives. The second half offers an analysis of the cultural, political, and historical influences shaping the experiences of PTSD in three detail cultural contexts: families, the US armed services, and the VA's mental-wellness-care organisation. Rather than switching to a more removed and analytical register in this section, Finley offers a rendering of how each of her composite veterans uniquely experiences the devastating impacts of PTSD, including substance corruption, indisposition, domestic violence, distancing of friends and family unit, divorce, and unemployment. By drawing on their narratives, Finley not only challenges popular ideas of PTSD as incurable and permanently debilitating, but offers a hopeful outlook on how significant advancements accept and proceed to be made in acknowledging, understanding, and treating PTSD. Truthful to her applied anthropology perspective, Finley closes her book with a substantial offer of recommendations. Informed by her intimate relationships with veterans, their families and wellness intendance providers, the recommendations are positioned at the levels of policy, family and community and cover both prevention and impact minimization.
Rich in descriptive item, Finley's text is careful, sensitive, and thoughtful. Finley transports us from picnic tables at a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post on the Fourth of July, to an army Humvee existence ravaged by an IED, to the bedside of a soldier whose leg has been amputated equally a consequence, to a higher campus likewise overwhelming with potential hidden dangers for a PSTD sufferer to traverse, and to a Chuck Due east. Cheese entertainment centre where a recovering veteran plays untroubled with his family.
Yet, in keeping the text narrowly focused on the experiences of her participants in San Antonio Finley omits some of the wider anthropological discussions about war, trauma and PTSD. Finley briefly mentions debates about understanding PTSD as a universal miracle or every bit a Western-derived cultural construct to explain sure types of suffering. More attention to this question equally well as to the issue of the "medicalization" of trauma would be welcome. A deeper examination would have contributed nicely to the discussion of new handling strategies: Why are these accepted by the 'new' breed of psychologists simply rejected past older generations? Is this division in the discipline of psychology unique to San Antonio, the VA system, or is can it be generalized to psychologists treating PTSD patients elsewhere in the U.s.a. and the globe? Similarly, Finley's account could have been extended to include findings on PTSD in non-US, non-military, non-gimmicky contexts, perhaps broadening the relevance of her research beyond its immediate contexts: the cultures of southern Texas, the war machine, and men.
Information technology is only in the conclusion that Finley shifts some attention to female person veterans. More than attention to women would have have been a welcome addition to this ethnography. In Iraq and Afghanistan female service members were often exposed to the aforementioned risks of mortar, rocket, and improvised explosive device attacks as their male colleagues. Women in the military are also at greater risk for what is termed 'military sexual assault' than their male person counterparts. Some other issue regarding women is the potentially more dramatic identify shift they feel in social reintegration at times resulting in greater difficulty in adjusting to the roles and social expectations of the macho-soldier and the feminine-civilian.
Finally, Finley poses the question, "Who is responsible for [the] suffering [of veterans]?" (169), but limits her answer to saying only that it is a question that volition be answered differently beyond cultural worlds. Explaining her limited offering of discussions of the politics of the wars in Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, Finley says that the political debates of the wars had no influence on the experiences of PTSD of her report participants. She offers little indication of how she came to this conclusion, and whether this may be unique to the San Antonio setting. I am left wondering so well-nigh the intended audience for Fields of Combat and nigh Finley'due south decision to limit the critical potential of her analysis. A more thorough theoretical discussion, drawing upon concepts of biopolitical field of study-making, for instance, would aid shed light on veterans' relationship to the state and the political positioning of their suffering.
In defense of Finley, many other scholarly anthropological works on PTSD tend to portray the individual, in part, as a victim, desperately trying to survive and make sense of what is often viewed as incomprehensible and overwhelming. Theirs is an endeavour to maintain or create subjectivity in the confront of dehumanizing experiences. However, Finley demonstrates that for the veteran, despite the fact that elements of structural violence may have directed their life trajectory in the direction of joining the military, they embrace their choice and are dedicated to what they practise. Their agency is an important element in the equation. And, that the route to PTSD involves the whole of their life experience and does not merely begin with the feel of trauma. Information technology is the fact that they have accepted this calling in their minds that is being betrayed by their acknowledging suffering. Nonetheless, the intimate coaction between the personal and the political could have been explored to a more satisfying depth.
Nicola Bulled holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut also as a Masters degree in Public Health from Boston Academy. She is currently a Fogarty Foundation funded H2o and Health Initiative in Limpopo (WHIL) Mail service-doctoral Fellow with the University of Virginia'south Center for Global Health.
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AMA citation:
Bulled N. Erin Finley'south Fields of Combat. Somatosphere. 2014. Available at: http://somatosphere.net/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-combat.html/. Accessed Apr 18, 2022.
APA citation:
Bulled, Nicola. (2014). Erin Finley'due south Fields of Gainsay. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from Somatosphere Web site: http://somatosphere.net/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-gainsay.html/
Chicago citation:
Bulled, Nicola. 2014. Erin Finley'south Fields of Combat. Somatosphere. http://somatosphere.net/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-combat.html/ (accessed April 18, 2022).
Harvard commendation:
Bulled, N 2014, Erin Finley'southward Fields of Combat, Somatosphere. Retrieved Apr 18, 2022, from <http://somatosphere.cyberspace/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-combat.html/>
MLA citation:
Bulled, Nicola. "Erin Finley's Fields of Combat." 3 Mar. 2014. Somatosphere. Accessed xviii Apr. 2022. <http://somatosphere.net/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-combat.html/>
Source: http://somatosphere.net/2014/erin-finleys-fields-of-combat.html/
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