The Trauma of Moral Injury: Beyond the Battlefield

This article explores moral injury, a concept from military mental health professionals, which refers to the emotional effects on soldiers of actions taken as part of their military obligations that violate the dictates of their moral compass (Boudreau, 2011 Boudreau, T. 2011. The morally injured. Massachusetts Review, 52(3/4): 746–754. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Shay, 2011 Shay, J. 2011. Casualties. Daedalus: The Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 140(3): 179–188. [Google Scholar]). This article will trace the history and current knowledge of moral injury and apply a social cognitive model of understanding the concept (Litz et al., 2009 Litz, B. T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C. and Maguen, S. 2009. Moral Injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 29: 695–706. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to vignettes from the authors' civilian clinical practice, in the hope of raising awareness within clinical social work and other mental health professions of the complexities of moral injury. By brining the concept of moral injury into the mainstream social work arena, it is the authors' hope that clinicians will be able to distinguish it from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and understand the role of shame in the experience of moral injury in their own clients.