What is Moral Injury?
Moral injury refers to psychological trauma caused by transgressions committed during military service that violate an individual's conscience. It occurs when individuals experience a sense of disillusionment, shame, guilt, fear, betrayal, anger, self-blame, grief, and loss after engaging in actions inconsistent with their moral values or expectations while serving in war. This may include witnessing, participating in, or failing to prevent acts such as killing civilians, torturing prisoners, or committing other atrocities. It can result from a range of experiences such as combat stressors, cultural shock, physical injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among others. While PTSD focuses primarily on emotional responses to traumatic events, moral injury emphasizes cognitive processing of those events through an ethical lens.
How does Moral Injury Impact Relational Expectations?
Experiencing moral injury can significantly impact veterans' relational expectations, particularly in intimate relationships. Veterans may struggle with trust issues due to feelings of betrayal towards themselves, their loved ones, and society. They may feel unworthy of love or connection and avoid intimacy altogether. Some might even engage in risky behaviors like substance abuse or promiscuity to escape these painful emotions. Others may seek out new partners who validate their suffering and share similar experiences but find it difficult to sustain meaningful connections over time.
Moral injury can create barriers to forming healthy relationships that require vulnerability and mutual understanding.
What are Sexual Norms?
Sexual norms refer to socially acceptable sexual practices, beliefs, and behaviors within a particular culture or context. These norms can vary widely across different cultures and change over time.
Some cultures view sex as sacred and reserved for marriage only, while others value sexual freedom and experimentation. Some see sex as taboo or shameful, while others consider it natural and necessary for wellbeing. Understanding sexual norms is essential for navigating relationships and developing healthy attitudes towards sexuality.
How do Moral Injury and Sexual Norms Intersect?
For veterans experiencing moral injury, sexual norms may become more complicated as they grapple with guilt and shame related to past actions or experiences. This can lead to dissonance between personal values and cultural expectations regarding sexual behavior, leading them to question their own desires and beliefs about sex. Some may become hyper-sexualized or turn to promiscuity as a coping mechanism, seeking validation from casual encounters without emotional investment. Others may avoid intimacy altogether due to fear of judgment or rejection. In either case, moral injury can impact sexual expression in ways that may not align with traditional conceptions of masculinity or femininity, further complicating relational dynamics.
Intimacy Goals
Intimacy goals refer to the desired level and type of closeness in romantic relationships. They encompass physical, emotional, and spiritual connections beyond just sexual activity. Veterans who have experienced moral injury may struggle to achieve these intimacy goals due to feelings of unworthiness or lack of trust. They might be hesitant to open up emotionally or share vulnerabilities due to fear of rejection or betrayal. They may also seek out partners who understand their suffering but find it challenging to maintain long-term commitments. As such, moral injury can impact relationship satisfaction by creating barriers to achieving intimate connection.
In what ways do moral injury and existential reflection reshape veterans' relational expectations, sexual norms, and intimacy goals?
Moral injury refers to the traumatic impact of witnessing, participating in, or failing to prevent acts that violate one's deeply held beliefs and values during military service. It can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, betrayal, anger, anxiety, depression, and isolation (Hoge et al. , 2018). Existential reflection involves contemplating the meaning and purpose of life, death, and relationships with others.