The influence of the war`s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer : a study comparative study of Anthony Swofforg`s Jarhead and Scott anderson`s triage - USD Repository
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE
LIFE OF A MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S
JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE .
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
Student Number: 024214094
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE
LIFE OF A MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S
JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE .
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
Student Number: 024214094
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE
LIFE OF A MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S
.JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE
By
MITA SEPTIANA
Student Number: 024214094 Approved by
Dra . Sri Mulyani, M.A. December 15, 2006 Advisor P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. December 15, 2006 Co-Advisor
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE
LIFE OF A MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S
JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE .
By
Student Number: 024214094 Defended before the Board of Examiners on January 22, 2007 and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Signature Chairman : Dr. Francis Borgias Alip, M. Pd., M.A.
Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. Member : Harris Hermansyah Setiajid, S.S., M.Hum.
Member : Dra. Sri Mulyani, M.A. Member : Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A.
Yogyakarta, January 27,2007 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the writer would like to thank God that finally this undergraduate thesis is finished. Then, for my dearly loved parents and little brother for their endless helps and supports during the making process of the undergraduate thesis. In addition, the writer is grateful to have Dra. Sri Mulyani, M.A. and P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. as the advisor and co-advisor, and thus, would like to show my appreciation for their guidance. My special thanks go to my cousin and friends in the Faculty of Psychology for their time and patience when sharing their psychological knowledge with me. Last but not least, the writer would like to express her gratitude to everyone at the English Letters Department: the lecturers, the staff, and all of my friends for the helps, advices, as well as criticism that are surely significant in forming the writer to be a better individual. Once again, the writer would like to thank you very much.
Mita Septiana
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .............................................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGE .................................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ............................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ vi ABSTRAK .................................................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1
A. Background of the Study ............................................................................ 1 B. Problem Formulation .................................................................................. 4 C. Objectives of the Study ............................................................................... 4CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ............................................................. 5
A. Review of Related Studies........................................................................... 5 B. Review of Related Theories ....................................................................... 11 C. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................... 20CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 22
A. Object of the Study ..................................................................................... 22 B. Approach of the Study ................................................................................ 23 C. Method of the Study ................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER IV THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE LIFE OF A MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE ................................................................ 26 A. The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a War Photographer as Seen in Scott Anderson’s Triage....................................... 27 B. The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a Marine as Seen Through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead ....................................................... 45 C. The Similarities and Differences between the Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a Marine and Those of a War Photographer as Seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead And Scott Anderson’s Triage.......... 61CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 67
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 72APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 74
ABSTRACT
MITA SEPTIANA (2006). The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life
of a Marine and a War Photographer: A Comparative Study of Anthony
Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
The writer does a comparative study on Swofford’s Jarhead and Anderson’s
Triage , particularly focusing on the main characters of both literary works, since
they experience the cruelty of warfare although they are not of the same role.Within this comparative study, the writer attempts to figure out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of actively fighting participant, like a marine and those who are not combatants, such as a war photographer. In addition, the comparative study is also intended to find similarities and differences between the two.
Based on the background of the comparative study mentioned earlier, there are two main objectives in doing further analysis on the main characters of both literary works who are almost similarly affected by the oppression of war. The first is to find out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Swofford’s Jarhead, then those of a war photographer in Anderson’s
Triage , and the last one is to comprehend how the oppression of the war affects
the marine and the war photographer in similar or different ways.For the comparative study on Jarhead and Triage, the writer reads both literary works for several times to get thorough understanding on the novels. After that, the writer obtains any studies, theories, and approaches that are significant for the making of this undergraduate thesis, decides a topic, and formulates two problems to be examined further in this undergraduate thesis. In doing the analysis, the writer makes use of general psychology approaches and theories since they are of almost related psychological cases. Furthermore, because
Jarhead portrays the life of a military individual, the writer applies military
psychology theory to discover if the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer is similar to or different from each other.
By doing deeper comparative study, the writer is able to acknowledge that for a non-combatant who has experienced the malicious warfare, like Mark, Swofford is also prone to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by showing typical indications and reactions to it, such as being in re-experiencing,
avoidance , and arousal states, also reactions that cover feelings, behavior, and
physical effects. Whereas for Swofford as a marine, even though there is no clear statement if he suffers from PTSD, he shares almost similar effects. He cannot avoid suffering the same states and depicting the reactions as well. Being a marine, the effects on him are quite different from Mark or other civilians in the warfare. He is likely to develop some psychiatric casualties, such as fatigue cases,
ABSTRAK
MITA SEPTIANA (2006). The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life
of a Marine and a War Photographer: A Comparative Study of Anthony
Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penulis melakukan studi banding pada Jarhead karya Swofford dan Triage karya Anderson, memfokuskan pada tokoh utama dalam kedua karya sastra karena keduanya memiliki persamaan, yaitu pernah berhadapan langsung dengan kekejaman perang walaupun peranan mereka berbeda satu sama lain. Dengan melakukan studi banding ini, penulis berusaha untuk mengetahui pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan individu yang secara aktif berperang, seperti seorang tentara dan mereka yang bukan pejuang, seperti fotografer perang. Selain itu, studi banding ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui persamaan dan perbedaan di antara keduanya.
Berdasarkan pada latar belakang studi banding yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya, ada dua tujuan utama dalam melakukan analisis lebih jauh pada tokoh utama kedua karya sastra, di mana mereka terkena pengaruh perang yang tidak jauh berbeda. Pertama-tama, tujuan utama dari analisis yang mendalam ini adalah untuk megetahui pengaruh perang di kehidupan seorang tentara dalam
Jarhead juga di kehidupan seorang fotografer perang dalam Triage, dan terakhir
untuk memperoleh pengertian tentang bagaimana pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan keduanya dapat sama sekaligus berbeda.
Dalam melakukan studi banding pada Jarhead dan Triage, penulis berulang kali membaca kedua karya sastra agar dapat memperoleh pengertian yang mendalam tentang kedua novel tersebut. Selanjutnya, penulis mengumpulkan studi, teori, maupun pendekatan yang berguna dalam pembuatan skripsi ini, menentukan sebuah topik, dan merumuskan dua permasalahan untuk diteliti lebih lanjut. Dalam melakukan analisa, penulis menerapkan teori psikologi umum karena keduanya menunjukkan kasus psikologis yang hampir serupa. Lebih lanjut, karena Jarhead meggambarkan kehidupan individu dalam militer, penulis menerapkan teori militer untuk mengetahui apakah pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan tentara serupa atau berbeda dari fotografer perang.
Setelah melakukan analisis, penulis mampu menyatakan bahwa seseorang yang bukan pejuang tetapi pernah memiliki pengalaman dengan kekejaman perang seperti Mark, juga cenderung mengalami tekanan pasca kejadian traumatik (PTSD). Ia menunjukkan gejala maupun reaksi khas, seperti dalam keadaan re-
experiencing dan avoidance, juga reaksi yang berhubungan dengan perasaan,
tingkah laku, dan pengaruh fisik. Sedangkan Swofford sebagai seorang tentara, ia juga terkena pengaruh yang tidak jauh berbeda, seperti mengalami keadaan dan bereaksi yang serupa dengan Mark. Seperti individu lain dalam militer, ia menunjukkan pengaruh yang berbeda dari Mark atau warga sipil lainnya dalam perang, yaitu pengaruh kejiwaan, misal kelelahan, kebingungan, kecenderungan authors and the readers. Through literary works, the authors are able to communicate their idea, feeling, thought, argument, or opinion toward certain issues or happenings in society based on their own or others’ experiences.
A work of art is essentially the internal made external, resulting from a creative process operating under the impulse of feeling, and embodying the combined product of the poet’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. The primary source and subject matter of a poem, therefore, are the attributes and actions of the poet’s own mind; or if aspects of the external world, then these only as they are converted from fact to poetry by the feelings and operations of the poet’s mind (Abrams, 1979:22).
In this undergraduate thesis, the writer chooses two literary works and both were written based on the authors’ own experiences in facing the cruelty of wars.
Both literary works to be analyzed further do have a main theme in common, which presents individuals struggle, physically and mentally, in certain context of wars and how they are likely to carry the effects of once or several times being truly experienced the wars themselves later in their life, outside the context of wars. The influence of war’s oppression, for those common people, are often generalized as having the same so-called effects, such as excessively stressed that sooner or later might turn into insanity, having rude and weird behavior, regardless of their roles or positions in the wars themselves.
Based on the field of study that is related to physical as well as mental influence of certain disastrous happening, like war for instance, we are able to psychologically analyze that the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of those who experience it can cause different effects and reactions depend on how far individuals involve themselves in the context of wars. Some of the people actively take part in the wars because they are soldiers fighting for their country and protecting the innocent people from the enemies’ attack. The rest is usually simply divided into two groups, namely those who are active not in a way of fighting, but because of certain jobs require them so, and those who are nothing but simply ordinary people trapped in the war situation.
Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead, for instance, is an autobiographical literary work that portrays the chronicle of a U.S. Marine who experienced the harshness of the first Gulf War. Through Jarhead, the chronicle of a U.S. Marines is depicted in details – how they face the everyday fear and uncertainty during the war, how they react to the war’s oppression imposed on them, and how the war’s oppression gives greater influence on life outside the war discourse. Since the characters on Jarhead are U.S. Marines who are certainly active in the war discourse – fighting for the sake of their beloved country and the needy, it is worth noting that those are simple things that cannot be taken for granted, accepted as it is. It is a phenomenon that can be psychologically revealed even through trifles, such as marines’ daily typical jargons, their seemingly rude behavior, and from the general influence of war’s oppression we, as common
On the other hand, Scott Anderson’s Triage is analyzed as a kind of “foil” for
Jarhead in a way it depicts the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of
semi-active war participant. In Triage, the main character is a war photographer who, like marines, also faces the reality of war discourse, but he positions himself differently from the marines. He is active in taking photographs of any interesting and valuable moments during the war discourse but it is a must for him to stay neutral, without supporting any sides. As a war photographer, he has seen what marines had seen even often treated no different from marines or enemies.
In a glance, it seems that the influence of the war’s oppression is all the same, whether it is on the life of marines, war photographers, or any other people in war discourse but actually, using psychological approach, it is possible to figure out the difference of the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of individuals based on their role on the war discourse (the way they adjust to war) and how they react to the influence itself. Referring to what has been mentioned before, the writer decided to do a comparative study on Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage in terms of analyzing the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer since both main characters of the analyzed literary works experienced the harsh world of war discourse actively but the characters had different role in the war, they have to undergo the influence of the war’s oppression in a slightly different way.
B. Problem Formulation
In analyzing the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer as seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s
Triage , there are two questions formulated as problems to be analyzed further,
namely:
1. What is the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and on the life of a war photographer in Scott Anderson’s Triage?
2. How is the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine similar to or different from the influence on a war photographer’s life?
C. Objectives of the Study
A comparative study on Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s
Triage will be made in order to analyze the influence of the war’s oppression on
the life of a marine and a war photographer. Since the study is a comparative one, this undergraduate thesis will cover two main objectives, namely to find out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and on the life of a war photographer in Scott Anderson’s
Triage and finally to understand how the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer is similar to or different from one another. th
through the year of the writing and first publication, can be included as 20 century literary works, there are not many studies done on both literary works.
However, there are some reviews and studies found on the Internet that commented on Jarhead and Triage.
Review found on Anderson’s Triage was by Valerie Sutherland, entitled ”Scott Anderson’s Triage Looks at The Paradoxes and The Traumas of War.” As it is suggested by the title, Sutherland focuses the review on discussing essential points on Triage which depict the common effects of the warfare and paradoxes created by the warfare itself.
Commenting on the paradoxes of war discourse, Sutherland states that the central characters on Triage, Mark, Dr. Morales, and Dr. Talzani, who are all categorized as “peripheral participants” in the war discourse, share similar burden. This burden is not a matter of clash between armies or ideologies, but it is related to their responsibilities and their survivor status.
A pivotal image in Triage is the paradox of the healer who kills. Dr Talzani in Kurdistan and Dr Morales in Spain both carry guns and use them to hasten the end for ‘incurables.’ By framing the story of Mark Walsh's psychological collapse and journey back to health between these two occurrences, author Scott Anderson has focused his discourse on the casualties of war on the related concepts of dimension. For Morales, Talzani and Mark, the experience of war is not a conflict between ideologies or empires or even armies''. For them it has become a confrontation with their own individual sense of responsibility. Each has to delve into his conscience and find the strength to hasten the death of people damaged beyond repair. The two doctors understand their actions as morally responsible ones, albeit marked by guesswork as to who should be chosen to die. Talzani is practicing euthanasia, Morales is protecting the community ).
Furthermore, she explains about war’s oppression traumas undergone by the main character on Triage, Mark. In her opinion, his traumas during a tedious healing process of post-traumatic stress disorder still have connection with the sense of responsibility for being the sole survivor, and later this might create denial of the truth, sense of alienation, and also irrational obsession. All of these, for instance, are shown by Mark’s condition after being several times “involved” in war discourse. Witnessing his close friend dying horribly and then finally dies, he unconsciously starts to create seemingly convincing situation in which his friend is still alive and would come home soon. Mark even worsens his trauma not only by denying the truth, but he also becoming obsessed with Perez’s problem, which has nothing to do with his own business. By shifting his attention to another unrelated problem, he hopes that it would act as a kind of payment for his denial of the horrible and unbearable facts.
In a literal sense Mark is responsible for Colin’s death and the weight of the responsibility almost breaks him. Just as the weight of Colin’s body almost pins him to the bottom of the river, the burden of the guilt he feels almost locks him into a dangerous alienation from his familiar world, bringing him close to insanity. Mark’s guilt does not stem only from the fact that he loosened the tourniquets on Colin’s legs, he is also suffering the ‘guilt of the survivor’, the sense that one has no right to be alive when
‘what happened to him’ Mark has denied Diane this knowledge about Colin and tries to compensate through finding the truth about ‘the butcher of Olia’ ).
Since the thesis is a comparative one, besides review on Triage, the writer also puts some reviews on Jarhead into use. One of the reviews on Jarhead, for instance, is by Sam Williamson. In general, he comments more on Swofford’s failure in depicting positive sides of the U.S. Marines. The memoir might depict true portrayal of the marines’ everyday situation during the course of war, but logically Jarhead is exaggeratedly written. For instance, the simple scene about Swofford and his weapon.
Some of this is due to some obvious exaggerations that Swofford worked into his stories, all of which seemed unnecessary. For example, at one point Swofford says that he's "been in the Marine Corps less than two years, and I've probably performed this one act, assembling the M16, more than ten thousand times." But that can't be true; it would mean that he assembled his M16 over 15 times every single day of those two years. Even averaging breaking down a weapon one time a day would seem high; though there would doubtless be days where a Marine broke down his weapon multiple times, there would also be many days where the weapons sat in the armory unused Almost similar tone to those of Williamson’s is presented by Mick LaSalle, a
Chronicle movie critic on the movie based on Swofford’s memoir, Jarhead,
entitled “A Soldier’s Story that’s Full of Blood and Guts – but No Heroics”.Since the movie, as well as the book, is portrayed from one man’s experience, it does not cover the entire truth about war. Its extent is limited. In spite of its limited extent, LaSalle states that Jarhead has the ring of truth and shows us
Swofford exemplifies the ring of truth by portraying a disappointed sniper who is not allowed to satisfy his lust to kill just because the order has changed. In addition to that, there is another encouraging point about Jarhead.
The great virtue of "Jarhead," which some will mistake as a fault, is that it doesn't try to make sense of it. Neither does it try to make something senseless of it. The invigorating thing about "Jarhead" is it makes us encounter the truth in its undigested form What he means of “the truth in its undigested form” here is Swofford, in fact, is trying to illustrate that those who join the Marines have their yearn for killing since the very first time they are pinched into military life. Therefore, “Their blood lust is not a matter of swagger, not a matter of hardening themselves for the inevitable unpleasantness” ( based on LaSalle’s review of Jarhead, it is likely to say that Jarhead is lack of heroic aspects generally shown by Marines. Instead, it is only “A soldier's story that's full of blood and guts” (
Watching Jarhead, as well as peering trough all pages of Anthony Swofford’s honest memoir about his experiences in the military and during the Gulf War, it is likely to assume that Jarhead is all about war and marine, soldierly stuffs. According to Stephanie Zacharek in her study about Jarhead, although the movie is known for the true visualization of Swofford’s memoir, the movie is slightly different from the book. She states that the result of reshaping process of the adapted text gives contribution to the deceptiveness of Jarhead as a motion picture version. The movie is “antiwar and anti-soldier” in a way the director movies have been depicted so far. Therefore, the movie ultimately degrades the intricacies of the original text.
And while every filmmaker has the right to shape (and sometimes reshape) the text he's adapting, the difference between Swofford's account of the assault and Mendes' dramatization of it encapsulates everything that's specious about the movie "Jarhead." Swofford's book is both funnier and more horrifying than the movie Mendes has made from it, and he makes no bones about how messed up (by civilian standards, at least), the U.S. Marine Corps is. But his book also addresses a world of greater complexities, and at the very least, it's ultimately about soldiers -- in other words, people. Mendes doesn't care about people -- he's too busy making his art. And with "Jarhead" he pulls off, effortlessly, what so many pro- and antiwar individuals since Vietnam have tried so conscientiously to avoid: His movie is antiwar and anti-soldier
Besides commenting on the movie that is, in her opinion, only pleasing the director’s personal aim, she also takes her stance on the more interesting points Swofford tries to portray on his book, such as some positive notions about being a marine and involved in military life that might not be consciously realized.
We can cluck cluck over the U.S. war machine, professing to feel the pain of the poor innocents forced to participate in such cruelty, without ever acknowledging that the guys who join that "war machine" often get something more from it than just a cruel induction into real manhood. As Swofford points out in his book, the military offers a kind of secure domesticity, and there's certainly a sense of community
Not only does the book depict the positive sides about marines and military life, but it also presents different way of thinking. For instance, rather than simply perceiving that marines are a group of young men in gallant manner, it is wise to acknowledge that they are actually real representation of our authority’s
Mendes means to suggest, I think, that the flawed, reckless Marines we've gotten to know in his movie are exactly the people we've sent out to fight our current war: They may be brave kids, doing their duty, but they're really not very smart, and it's our government's fault for sending them out that way
From many reviews on Jarhead mentioned earlier, all of them discuss the crucial matter in Jarhead only from the surface. None of them relates his review with psycological aspect which is actually also significant to be discussed. Among those only-external reviews on Jarhead, there is a review done by William Arnold, a Seattle Post intelligencer movie critic that is related to psychological aspect, entitled “'Jarhead' Sends A Powerful Message about War's Psychological Toll”. In his review, he believes that Jarhead is unlike most of famous war movies ever made. Within its limitation, Jarhead can be inferred as a non-political movie. Being a non-political one, Jarhead is more focusing on the human psychological aspect, especially in the term of war discourse.
For a movie that deals so boldly with the roots of our current, controversial war in Iraq, it's also surprisingly apolitical. It keeps its point of view narrow, its characters clueless and any moral reservations close to its vest. And yet it's a powerful experience that measures the human cost of its war -- and all war, really -- less in terms of battlefield statistics than in the subtle, degenerative psychological effect that it sends rippling through a generation and a society
Arnold sums up his review by saying that Jarhead is an impressive movie in a way it brings back our consciousness that the echoes of war still can be felt not only during the event, but it is also possible to take place again later regardless of time and space.
But the sum of the movie is devastating. One takes out of it a sense that the human cost of our endless adventure in Iraq is going to be incalculable, perhaps catastrophic -- a psychological time bomb that will be exploding for decades to come Referred to all reviews of related studies done on Jarhead and Triage mentioned before, most of them only external ones, the writer decides to do further analysis on the psychological effects seen in characters in both novels who are involved in the war discourse. The analysis is intended to support the comparative study on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer in Jarhead and Triage.
1. PTSD Symptoms In doing the analysis on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott
Anderson’s Triage. since the study is aimed at analyzing certain characteristic of individual’s mental or behavioral, the writer applies theories on psychology, focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. First, we have to know what post-trauma stress means.
At its simplest it can be defined as ‘the normal reactions of normal people to events that for them are unusual or abnormal (Parkinson, 2000:29). As we all know that every happening has its own cause and effect, the same thing also applied to the case of post-trauma stress. In discussing post-trauma stress, it cannot be separated from detecting its specific symptoms. The symptoms generally divided into three kinds, which are re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal (Parkinson, 2000:52-62).
What it means by re-experiencing here is that any feeling or emotion felt not only during the time of traumatic event or shortly afterwards, but it is common to be felt again after years of the experience. The sensational feeling or emotion might be varied from only serene to intensely disturbing one, and it usually comes when we are not prepared to anticipate it. The sense of re-experiencing can be unconsciously jumped out of the repressed mind because of both external and internal cause. As a result, this thing can directly cause another common reaction to follow.
These feelings can be ‘triggered’ by sights (TV, video, media, news items, movies, photographs, people, talking about it), and by sounds, smells, tastes, and touch… They can be extremely frightening, and the fear of losing control or going crazy is not unusual… This can lead people to practice avoidance or isolation (Parkinson, 2000:53). It is much more understandable that certain external cause contributes to the sense of re-experiencing certain traumatic event, but it is more complicated when it comes to our own internal feeling or emotion. Yet, it is possible to occur.
These experiences are sometimes referred to as flashbacks, but they could equally well be called flash-forwards. They can emerge gradually or suddenly from our unconscious. They not only seem to take us right back to the event, but also can bring the feelings and emotions-even sights, smells and sounds associated with it-into the present (Parkinson, 2000:55). b. Avoidance Being traumatized by certain horrible experience will definitely forces us to be cautious not to be trapped in the same situation again. One simple way that most people do is detaching themselves as far as possible from potential remembrances.
Similarly, when we have experienced a traumatic incident, we may try to avoid anything that reminds us of the circumstances, such as places, people, pictures, or other things that might bring the memories and feelings back into our minds (Parkinson, 2000:56).
Avoidance is fairly acceptable to both major and minor incidents, but actually it tends to build other complicated forms that are related to one another, such as continuously denying the fact and unconsciously drawing self from our surrounding.
A common response to trauma is denial. This response is actually a form of avoidance, especially among men… I might join a support group or club and cling to something, to someone, to a memory…Through this experience I am at risk of becoming more isolated and lonely…(Parkinson, 2000:56-59).
c. Arousal Besides feeling the sense of re-experiencing and practicing avoidance, any human being who has been experiencing traumatic event might be awakened by arrangement of unpredicted responses.
Because a traumatic incident sensitizes the nervous system, other symptoms may arise. A traumatic event can make us touchy and jumpy, and our reactions can be erratic and unexpected (Parkinson, 2000:60). Similar to PTSD symptoms explained before, excessive arousal or self- consciousness might lead to difficulty in facing reality and self-withdrawal. Those are all typical in the case of PTSD.
An overstimulated sense of awareness and arousal can lead to an incapacity to cope with normal events and experiences and a retreat into isolation. There can be outburst of anger between bouts of silence and a withdrawal into self. (Parkinson, 2000:61)
Interestingly, there is a unique characteristic that makes arousal different from other PTSD symptoms, which is called replacement behavior.
Another sign of this increased sense of arousal can be the desire to do things on impulse without knowing why… Some people will spend vast sums of money on things they don’t need, change their lifestyle or relationships and do things they have never done before (Parkinson, 2000:61).
2. PTSD Reactions After knowing the kind of PTSD symptoms, there are several common reactions that are often found in the case of PTSD. These common reactions covered feelings, behavior, and physical effects of the person traumatized by certain incident (Parkinson, 2000:64-71).
a. Feelings There are many and various emotions emerged after certain traumatic happening, such sense of pointlessness and increase of anxiety and vulnerability.
A person who is traumatized usually shows that there is no point of living his life back to normal. Of course, it would intensify sadness or creating more excessive fear and panic that would even lead us to “a descent into apathy and inactivity” (Parkinson, 2000:64).
Furthermore, intrusive images and thoughts are likely to appear although sometimes the projection made by our minds is irrelevant to actual traumatic happening.
People can see images of the event flashing into their minds, or these can be projected outside… and even experience smells and sounds that remind them of the event… The images can be disturbing because sometimes they seem to bear no relation to what we have been through (Parkinson, 2000:64). As it is stated before, the flashing images can be disturbing. Being realized or not, those disturbing images cannot be repressed forever into the depth of our minds. There are times when they need to emerge in the forms of nightmares and sleep disturbances.
If I have intrusive thoughts and images, and especially if I refuse to acknowledge how I really feel, then these thoughts can also be experienced in dreams and nightmares (Parkinson, 2000:65). Another noticeable reaction related to feeling and emotion is the mixture of uncertain feelings. This mixture of uncertain feeling usually involved feeling of anger, blame, guilt, regret, shame, and bitterness. These feelings are unavoidable especially when we survive while others do not from a traumatic incident. It is common to be referred as survivor guilt. Having developed sense of survivor
guilt , we are likely to segregate ourselves from any remembrance or anything that
might awaken the guilt itself. As a result of the detachment, loneliness and social isolation are likely to follow.
These feelings may cause people to avoid those who have suffered a loss, behavior for which they feel even more intense guilt. Some people retreat into social isolation and loneliness (Parkinson, 2000:67). Finally, there is also no guilt in being afraid that the traumatic incident might take place again later regardless of the chance of happening as long as it does not bother our normal life.
There is nothing wrong even with this unless it becomes incapacitating or so disturbing we can no longer cope with it (Parkinson, 2000:68).
b. Behavior Not only do our feelings react to traumatized event, but we also react by showing some typical behavior that might be contradictory to our usual behavior.
For instance, if making decision is a thing to be proud of from us, traumatic happening is likely to torn it apart.
When you have been through a traumatic experience the simple and ordinary things of life pale when compared with what has been experienced… The effect on people who were once decisive and direct may be that they now find it hard to make decisions or know what to do (Parkinson, 2000:69). In addition to difficulty in making decisions, people traumatized by certain incident are often found to be difficult to focus on things and thus, they are easily annoyed - get angry and sometimes tend to be violence for no apparent reason.
Some find it difficult to concentrate for any length of time and become irritable. An inability to concentrate can lead to more irritability and anger…There may even be violence… (Parkinson, 2000:69).
c. Physical Effects People who have been through a certain incident might get injured by the event, be it major or only minor injuries. The wounds might be apparent, in this case real ones, or only as creation of a hypochondriac.
A traumatic event may trigger illnesses of a nonspecific nature, such as headaches, stomachaches, pains or tightness in the chest and various pains in other parts of the body… The symptoms may be real or imagined… (Parkinson, 2000:70).
Besides real or imaginative illnesses, there are physical effects seen as parts of traumatic incident that they are experiencing what they called listlessness while the rests become hyperactive and full of excitement whether it is useful or not.
Some complain of never having any energy, of being tired all the time…The opposite of listlessness can occur. Some become greatly excited and hyperactive, often with no real aim in life, but may become involved in… anything that takes their energy or activity (Parkinson, 2000:71).
3. Psychiatric Casualties (based on Military Psychology) After knowing the definition, typical characteristics, and symptoms of PTSD, we will use another theory in psychology that is usually applied to the military life. Therefore, the psychological study related to military life is often referred as
military psychology . In military psychology, it is common for those involved in
military life to suffer from psychiatric casualties. Even, the opportunity of undergoing those casualties is likely to be bigger than to be executed by our foes.
Richard Gabriel tells us that in every war … the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire (Grossman, 1995:43).
Additionally, still quoting from Gabriel’s No More Heroes, Grossman explains the various visible expressions shown by these common casualties most soldiers suffer from, such as fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety states, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders (Grossman, 1995:45-48).
a. Fatigue Cases Even for those who are involved in military life, physically strong is never enough because they also, like others human being, tend to feel consumed by exhaustion or weariness that sooner or later will affect to the degeneration of their performance in their daily military life.
Increasingly sociable and overly irritable, the soldier loses interest in all activities with comrades and seeks to avoid any responsibility or activity involving physical or mental efforts… There will also be such somatic symptoms as hypersensitivity to sound, increased sweating, and palpitations (Grossman, 1995:45).
b. Confusional States The initial symptoms known as fatigue cases will create more complex problem that makes soldiers gradually no longer take hold of the logical truth or reality as a form of their incapability to adjust with the surroundings.
Usually, the soldier no longer knows who he is or where he is. Unable to deal with his environment, he has mentally removed himself from it. Symptoms include delirium, psychotic dissociation, and manic- depressive mood swings (Grossman, 1995:45).
In psychological study, typical symptoms mentioned before are not impossible to develop Ganzer syndrome that we often found in daily military life regardless of the danger surrounds and is waiting for them.
One often noted response is Ganzer syndrome, in which the soldier will begin to make jokes, act silly, and otherwise try to ward off the horror with humor and the ridiculous (Grossman, 1995:45).
c. Conversion Hysteria This alteration does not only take place during conflict but it also likely to continue years after the incident happened. It also important to acknowledge that this conversion hysteria can lead to some sudden and uncontrolled contraction of muscles.
Conversion hysteria… as an inability to know where one is or to convulsive attacks in which the soldier rolls into the fetal position and begins to shake violently (Grossman, 1995:46).
d. Anxiety States If weariness felt by the soldier reaches its peak, it is common that the soldier becomes difficult to focus on things, excessively frightened, obsessed with fatality, and endure some mental and physical illnesses. Besides that, the soldier is also potential to suffer from PTSD.