American and NATO Veteran Reintegration

The Trauma of Social Isolation & Cultural Chasms

Author: Gary Senecal and MaryCatherine McDonald

In American and NATO Veteran Reintegration, MaryCatherine McDonald and Gary Senecal examine mental health issues among former American service members. McDonald and Senecal argue that sociocultural factors, such as military training and civilian society, have a dramatic impact...

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In American and NATO Veteran Reintegration, MaryCatherine McDonald and Gary Senecal examine mental health issues among former American service members. Data shows that American veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at significantly higher rates than veterans in other NATO ally countries involved in the war in Afghanistan. McDonald and Senecal argue that sociocultural factors, such as military training and civilian culture, have a dramatic impact on these rates.

Critic Reviews

“Professors Gary Senecal and MaryCatherine McDonald provide an exciting and unnerving look at American war culture. They ask, 'Why do former American troops kill themselves at a rate 50 and 100 times higher than troops from comparable countries?' The trouble, as told by American Veteran Reintegration, begins before troops ever reach the battlefield.”

MaryCatherine McDonald and Gary Senecal's provocative new book, American and NATO Veteran Reintegration, tells a story that is not only about returning veterans and their personal challenges and crises, but also about those strands of American culture that have made the process of returning more painful and deadly than it ought to be. In telling this story, they also seek to show that PTSD, rather than being rooted solely in the individual, is more appropriately framed relationally, in terms of the interplay of person and world. Alongside the possible need for psychotherapy, therefore, is the need for a broader socio-therapy, one oriented toward providing a more suitable home for those seeking true shelter from the storm of war.

-- Mark Freeman, College of the Holy Cross

Professors Gary Senecal and MaryCatherine McDonald provide an exciting and unnerving look at American war culture. They ask, ‘Why do former American troops kill themselves at a rate 50 and 100 times higher than troops from comparable countries?’ The trouble, as told by American Veteran Reintegration, begins before troops ever reach the battlefield.

-- Patrick Whitehead, Albany State University