The Power of Weakness: Review of the book by Mark Neville and Jamie Hacker Hughes “Battle Against Stigma”

Abstract

Jamie Hacker Hughes and Mark Nevilles two-volume tome, Battle Against Stigma, published by Grafos of Barcelona in 2014, is a far from typical study of the psychological effects of combat on the participants. Several factors make this work a highly original one.The first is that it is a collaboration by specialists from very different fields. The co-authors are Jamie Hacker Hughes, renowned British military psychologist and president of the British Psychological Society, and Mark Neville, a photojournalist who accompanied units of the British Army on patrol in Afghanistan.The first volume features selected photographs by Neville taken in 2010 in the Afghan province of Helmand. Panoramic pictures from the field of battle are accompanied by a short, succinct commentary that illuminates the psychological aspect of war. British officers and soldiers in the conflict zone add their own sincere and candid testimony of the feelings, impressions, impulses and moods they experience while on duty in a combat zone. The vivid, detailed descriptions of military life combine with the photographic record to give the reader the opportunity to view the psychology of war in 3D, so to speak. The effect is akin to being an actual witness of the reported events. The second volume of the book is written by J. H. Hughes, and follows on logically from Nevilles multi-sourced, three-dimensional, dynamic view of the war. Hughes writes of how the specific conditions of this conflict - fought thousands of miles away in a foreign land where the geography, climate, and culture are all vastly different from those at home -- can greatly affect the mental state and psychological wellbeing of those serving in the military.The second factor that makes the work unique is the diversity of those who gave their testimony. Among those sharing their thoughts and views are specialists from many branches of the military plus a wide range of civilian experts as well as ordinary citizens. There is academic opinion from Professor J. H. Hughes on psychological trauma and the issue of stigma; there are contributions from ordinary soldiers like Simon Peacock, Mike Flynn, reservist Jack Wood, plus officers such as Major Chris Hunter and Colonel Stuart Tootal and others, reflecting on their own experiences in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are the thoughts of veteran's family member Marianna Oddysseos, charity worker Walter Busuttil and mental health specialist Wendy Frappell-Cooke, etc.The third factor is that the book analyses a problem that is particularly acute for veterans of active service with the armed forces of many English-speaking nations, particularly the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK. That problem is the stigma attached to former combatants who have suffered psychological trauma.The authors describe stigma as the process whereby those who display certain unusual behavior or personality traits encounter exclusion and discrimination by society.The book tells us how modern warfare has a high potential to inflict psychological trauma on the participants. A British soldier embarking on a single six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan faces a one-in-four chance of being killed or wounded. Judging by the testimony of these combatants, it demands considerable levels of courage to fight against a skilled, resourceful and often unseen enemy across terrain littered with improvised explosive devices. The risks faced by the soldier and his comrades and the constant fear which hovers throughout the murky days, nights, months and even years, subsequently lead to feelings of inadequacy' such as guilt, despair, loneliness, confusion, shame and rejection. This in turn can sometimes result in deteriorating health, difficulties in finding or holding down a job, or problems in relationships with friends and family.Almost every combatant will experience some kind of psychological problem stemming from the stress of engaging in battle. …