War and Psychology - Essay Example

With rising onsets of PTSD in veterans coming back from active duty, it has become more imperative in developing treatments that can combat this effectively. Conversely, psychology has also opened up windows in how current wars are now fought in respect to psychological treatment and persuasion. War has opened many new fields in psychology, such as military psychology, and expanded already pre-existing fields, such as traumatology. This comes into play when dealing with counseling. Originally, when soldier’s would suffer from the psychological ailments of war, counselors would simply dismiss it as trivial and being “shell-shocked”.

As a result, many of the earlier engagements did not have adequate psychological care. As more and more veterans began returning to society after war, problems linked with PTSD such as domestic violence, drug/alcohol abuse, depression, suicide, etc. became more prevalent. Therefore, war had an effect on the way in which therapy was conducted in special cases of PTSD. There have also been additions to grief counseling, as the knowledge of grieving and effects of depression have been understood.

The advent of psychopharmacology allows psychologists to have their therapy supplemented by medicine through a psychiatrist (Herman, 1997). Conversely, the understanding of the human mind has affected the way in which war is conducted. For example, there is a branch of the United States Army, which is entitled Psychological Operations. The goal of this branch is to use propaganda and persuasion tactics to coerce the local population to see that they are not a threat. This also requires an understanding of group dynamics in order to coerce a population.

On a more negative note, psychology has also taught military and government officials to understand the workings of the human mind. They have been learning better interrogation techniques, some of which have been under review by the United States government. In addition, better understanding into the work of memory and information extraction has lead to the development of technologies and medicines to aid in this effort (Goldstein, & Findley, 1996). The psychology of war has also had benefits in other areas that are more civilian related.

For example, again with trauma, there are traumas that occur in the civilian realm. These can include rape, child abuse, etc. The techniques used in traumatology are derived from those that are used in military PTSD cases. The logotherapy and CBT counseling is used in all trauma related counseling (Reyes, Elhai, & Ford, 2008). Concluding, not only has war had an impact on the development in psychology, but has also had an impact on the way in which the psychology of war has been approached. Many good things have developed through learning how to counsel those affected by wartime.

Constrastly, there have been what some people would consider negative developments in which psychology has aided to defending our country through interrogation and coercion methods. References Goldstein, F, & Findley, B. (1996). Psychological operations: principles and case studies. New York, NY: Air University Press. Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books. Reyes, Gerald, Elhai, J, & Ford, J. (2008). The encyclopedia of psychological trauma. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &