« Hors les lois de la guerre ». À propos du traumatisme psychique chez quatre soldats auteurs de meurtres en situation opérationnelle

Abstract

ObjectivesFollowing an aggressive situation, can the aggressors, as for the victims, suffer from a traumatic breakdown. As Military Psychiatrists, we have met veteran military murderers. All these patients present with a state of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with either severe alcoholism or severe depression (melancholy). We also compared the effects of treatment within the two groups, i.e. murders, and victims. PatientsWe chose four patient observations murderers. Their acts were committed “Except for the laws of war”, that is to say, forbidden by the Geneva Conventions. The alcoholic patients: Guillaume is a 45-year-old veteran from the wars in Indochina and Algeria. He has undergone several unsuccessful detoxification programs. One day, he finally tells the most significant episode of his history. While in Algeria, his lieutenant asked him to execute a prisoner. Since then, he has nightmares where he sees the scene, and calms his anxiety with alcohol. He was hospitalized and commenced psychotherapeutic treatment during which he relived his childhood, adolescence and his military career. Two months later, he is cured from his post-traumatic stress condition and alcoholism. Another veteran from Algeria, who was also a severe alcoholic: whilst there, he was ordered by his chief to execute three prisoners. A few years later, by chance he meets his former boss who tells him that the three victims were brothers. He is very shocked because he comes from a region of “vendettas” where it is said that one does not eliminate a family. These nightmares and his alcoholic career started there. Treatment will prove ineffective. The melancholic patients: Andre is a former veteran of Indochina. There, he participated in the massacre of villagers who had hidden enemies. He returned to France after his time engagement, married, had five children, and resumed his profession as industrial painter. After 5 years, he is assailed by nightmares and cannot stop to tell of the horrors to those around him. His wife eventually threw him out and he became a hobo (tramp) in his small town. Gradually during the night, he has hallucinations: he hears his Vietnamese enemies lurking around him waiting for a day to take revenge. He was hospitalized and fairly gradually, the nightmares disappear and then, slowly, his depressive state. Yanis is a 40-year-old veteran of the French Foreign Legion. He lives in Paris and gradually felt he was the center of a complot by Arab youths in the capital. He became aware of surprised looks and conversations, which indicated that they want to kill him. He took refuge in the Military Hospital, where he recounted the circumstances in which, in Africa, he killed a teenager. This act was the result of a misunderstanding, but he saw himself as a murderer of children. Again, the psychotherapeutic treatment resulted in healing. ResultsIn three of our patients, the disappearance of the syndrome of repetition (repetition syndrome) and the alcohol and the melancholic state was achieved quickly. Probably because the “enjoyment” attached to traumatic images when the patient is a victim, here is outweighed by the horror of an act that the person has committed itself. Thus, the patient is willing much faster than when a victim, to get rid of the repetition syndrome. ConclusionPatient murderers feel themselves as guilty, which turn them to alcohol and ideas of persecution. Despite the severity of the conditions of post-traumatic stress presented by criminal murderers, do not hesitate to commence psychotherapeutic therapy.