Critiquing the Subject of Moral Injury

Abstract

ABSTRACT Moral injury embodies the claim that war is so transgressive for soldiers that it can create situations that may undermine one’s trust in oneself, others, and the world. Central to leading conceptualizations of moral injury is the assumption that soldiers are perhaps uniquely prone to such moral harm in combat. Other individuals who help form the context of such an injury, and who may also suffer, are overshadowed by the singular light cast on the veteran. This article argues that the nature of one’s moral injury, as well as the ethical landscape of the battlefield, will be misunderstood if definitions of moral injury continue to elide the relationships in which such injury arises. Focusing on one soldier’s reflection, the article critiques such definitions and proposes understanding moral injury as a harm that arises between persons in a wartime’s moral ecology, viewing it as a form of intersubjectivity. It also explores the political and ethical dimensions of such a reformulation.