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VA PSYCHIATRIST GETS MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
"GENIUS" AWARD -- Dr. Jonathan Shay selected
for his work
in using literary parallels from Homer's Iliad
and Odyssey
to treat combat trauma suffered by Vietnam
veterans.
Dr. Jonathan Shay
(photo: Pat Greenhouse / Globe Staff)
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We have two pieces of information. First
is a news story, then a VA press release.
News story
here...
http://www.boston.
com/news/local/articles/2007/09/
25/psychiatrist_treated_vet
erans_using_homer/
Story below:
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Psychiatrist treated veterans using Homer
Work made him MacArthur fellow
By Anna Badkhen
Globe Correspondent
When Boston psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wanted to understand the
psychological toll of the Vietnam War on the veterans he treated, he
turned to the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
The classical Greek epics perfectly encapsulate the mental damage of
combat, said Shay, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in
Boston.
He wrote two books that draw on the similarities between the Vietnam-era
trauma of his patients and the stress of combat that Homer portrayed in
poems that may be as old as 2,800 years.
Today, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will announce
that Shay, 65, has been selected as a 2007 MacArthur fellow "for his
work in using literary parallels from Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' to
treat combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans."
"His work is important for delivering healthcare to all those who put
their lives on the line in the service of our country," said Mark D.
Fitzsimmons, associate director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. "It's
fair to describe it as pertinent."
Shay is one of 24 people selected for MacArthur fellowships this year,
Fitzsimmons said.
Each fellowship comes with a $500,000 grant, which the foundation
bestows on its fellows in quarterly installments over five years. The
fellows are free to spend the money as they wish.
Shay grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, attended Harvard College
and the University of Pennsylvania, and ran a laboratory at
Massachusetts General Hospital, studying the biochemistry of brain cells
and why they die so fast after a stroke.
Then, at the age of 40, Shay had a stroke. He went into a coma for
several days and emerged temporarily paralyzed on the left side of his
body.
It took him a year to recover fully.
While he was convalescing, Shay "decided to plug up the holes in my
education" and read the English translations of the "Iliad" and the
"Odyssey."
In 1987 Shay went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs
Outpatient Clinic in Boston, hoping to open a lab and restart his
research career. In return, Shay, a psychiatrist, agreed to work as a
counselor "at a very grimy, dilapidated day hospital on the top floor of
a garage building on the edge of Chinatown here in Boston."
Almost immediately, psychiatry became the main focus of his work, and he
soon found that the veterans he treated trusted him and responded to his
counseling in ways he had not expected.
"The veterans simply kidnapped me," he said. "They saw something in me
that I didn't see in myself, and they utterly redirected my life."
As he listened to the veterans during his sessions, he realized that the
psychological trauma that haunted the veterans of the Vietnam War had
also tormented the heroes of the Greek epics.
"I was hearing elements of the story of Achilles over and over again,"
Shay said.
Achilles, the hero of the "Iliad," is mistreated by his commander, who
takes a girl, a prize of war, from him. Achilles is also tormented by
the loss of his best friend in the Trojan War. With his ethical universe
upended, he goes berserk.
Soon, Shay began to work on his first book, "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat
Trauma and the Undoing of Character."
In the book, he interspersed the story of Achilles with examples of his
patients' losses and contentious relationships with their commanders in
Vietnam to illustrate some of the causes of the troops' psychological
wounds.
In "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming,"
published in 2002, Shay draws parallels between the perilous, 10-year
journey home of Odysseus from the Trojan War and the psychological
odyssey of veterans returning to civilian life.
Like the hero of the "Odyssey," whom Shay depicts as conniving and
explosively violent as he travels the world battling monsters, veterans
of contemporary wars are often danger-seekers.
In his book, Shay cites the example of a Navy veteran from South Boston
who was the only member of his boat crew to survive an explosion in the
Mekong Delta on March 17, 1968, during the Tet Offensive.
For years on the anniversary of the explosion, this veteran, whom Shay
calls Wiry, "would go into a really rough fighting bar in Southie and
just attack the meanest, toughest-looking guy in the bar and get himself
beat up," Shay told the Globe.
Today, troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan tell similar stories
about their mental struggles.
Shay believes that the analogies he draws in his books can be useful to
help reduce and treat psychological trauma among those veterans.
"As long as human beings go to war and try to come home from war, these
[epics] will speak to us," he said of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
"They truly hold up all that is generic about going to war and coming
home from war."
Shay's books are "a wonderful resource for both clinicians and vets and
their loved ones," said Keith Armstrong, a San Francisco psychiatrist
and one of the authors of "Courage After Fire," a guide book on coping
with trauma for troops who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and
for their families.
Shay wants to study how to improve the way the military treats the
troops and their needs at a center he hopes to open at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He said he probably will not use the fellowship money to open the
center, but said he hoped that the recognition that accompanies the
award will help find donors.
"There will never be a war where people don't get hurt psychologically,"
Shay said. "But you can sure as hell avoid doing things that make
injuries more frequent and more serious."
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VA press release here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
vap07/vap092507-1.htm
Press release below:
-------------------------
VA PTSD Psychiatrist Given “Genius” Award
September 25, 2007
Boston’s Jonathan Shay Honored with MacArthur Fellowship
WASHINGTON -- A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee in Boston,
Dr. Jonathan Shay, has been awarded the so-called “Genius Award” from
the MacArthur Foundation. Shay, the author of two popular books about
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been a VA staff psychiatrist
treating combat veterans with PTSD since November 1987.
“Dr. Shay is living proof that VA is providing our veterans with the
best health care this country has to offer, especially for the treatment
of PTSD,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “Our
veterans deserve -- and VA is providing -- world-class health care.”
Shay was one of 24 Americans who each recently received a $500,000 grant
from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the
nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, for “exceptional merit and
promise of continued creative work.” Shay combines a study of classic
literature with 20 years of experience treating veterans in Boston to
explain PTSD to both the public and health care professionals.
In addition to publications in professional journals, he is the author
of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America, two widely regarded
books that helped spread the understanding that PTSD is an age-old
battlefield injury by comparing the works of the ancient Greek poet
Homer to the experiences of modern combat veterans.
He also pioneered the use of certain anti-depression medicine, called
“selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” for combat trauma, a
treatment that now has broad endorsement for veterans with psychological
injury.
Besides working for VA, Shay has also worked with the military services
and the Defense Department in a variety of capacities to foster an
understanding of PTSD, improve military leadership and strengthen ethics
training for the military.
Shay received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, and his M.D.
and Ph.D. in neuropathology from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Larry Scott --
