Showing results by author "Edward Tick" in All Categories

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder increasingly afflicts veterans of modern warfare. The RAND Corporation has reported that it affects almost 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. Tragically, PTSD impacts all aspects of life. Some vets can’t hold jobs or sustain relationships. Others have recurrent nightmares or won’t leave home. To begin healing, says Edward Tick, we must see PTSD as a disorder of identity itself. War’s violence can cause the very soul to flee and be lost for life.

The modern practice of medicine and psychology grew out of the ancient Greek healing tradition, said to be founded by Asklepios, god of healing and dreams. For two thousand years the system spread all over the Mediterranean world and planted the roots of Western medicine and psychology by offering ritual and holistic practices that recognized that healing begins at the soul level. Yet, since that time, the spiritually based practices were cast aside, leaving behind only the scientific medical techniques that dominate health care today.

As veterans from a new generation come back from overseas, our culture's lack of resources for returning warriors has become a greater problem than ever. "Lifelong suffering after war is not inevitable," says Dr. Edward Tick. "But in our culture, we have unwittingly forced our veterans to carry the moral and social of burdens of warfare alone." On Restoring the Warrior's Soul, Dr. Tick offers tools for healing and guidance to help veterans cope with the life-changing effects of combat and find a new sense of peace and purpose.