Healing Moral Injury in Health Care

Mental health disorders are in vogue, and by that I mean our society pays a lot of attention to quantifying and identifying the social and mental dysfunctions of modern life. It is my belief that most mental health conditions represent ancient helpful survival mechanisms that have become dysfunctional because they clash with modern social systems. Violent trauma often leads to post traumatic stress disorder. Bipolar individuals might just have a physiologically heightened sensitivity to the fact that modern life is absurd and maddening. The morally injured feel genuinely betrayed and guilty. Moral injury (MI) is largely ignored, and is underrepresented in research. Most related research looks into classical history or literature to connect the dots. The mechanism of MI is the transgression of deeply held beliefs or expectations perpetrated by an authority. Because humans depend for survival on membership, in and validation by family and tribe, the cognitive dissonance between reality and the perception of what should be, can be extremely deleterious. “Unlike post-traumatic stress, which is a result of a fear-conditioned response, moral injury is a feeling of existential disorientation that manifests as intense guilt2.”  Warriors from every society and empire have dealt with MI. Agamemnon’s betrayal of Achilles, King Saul’s murderous jealousy against David, and veterans of the Viet Nam Conflict who suffered from the conflict between the momentary demands of the battle...
Source: Society for Participatory Medicine - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Newsletter Mental Health Moral Injury participatory medicine Patient engagement Source Type: news