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On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of
Deadly Conflict in War and Peace Rating: 9/10 Review I was beginning to see a number of post Gulf War II and Afghanistan War veterans in the office. I was looking about for books regarding post traumatic stress disorder in returning veterans. I ran across a variety of books and it seemed this book might be about what I was investigating. Well, it is about PTSD in a way, but more tangential than I had hoped. This book does have some good ideas about treating PTSD, but that is clearly not its primary focus. The focus of this book is really about how to prevent PTSD by having an awareness of what happens to an individual when they are in life threatening combat situations whether they be military or domestic such as police, parole officers, etc. To be honest, anyone could learn a great deal from this book. No one will ever know when they might be involved in a situation they did not anticipate. The information and preparation discussed in this book is quite enlightening and seemingly useful. I really had no idea about the various physiologic processes that can occur under extreme duress in a combat situation. Simply to have the awareness of these changes would be very helpful. I learned a great deal that would be helpful for working with anyone who has been in a difficult situation in combat. He does come at it from the point of view of those who are called to run toward the sound of gunfire as opposed to most of us who run away from gunfire. He gives great historical information regarding how American soldiers have performed in combat over time, how this has been worked on and improved. He talks about the effects of the current video game era on the development of highly effective shooters. This book may not be for the squeamish. The implications of what he has to say are very important for those who know they have a high likelihood of being in a combat situation. I believe the book is important for all of us to consider when we look at where our culture has been going over the past 100 years. Most of us just pray we are never in one of these situations, others pray they will know what to do when they are in such a situation some day. Even more important is to have some understanding of what just happened to you and how to go about working with it after it happens. He gives explanations of all of this. As a pacifist, I enjoyed his attempt to discuss issues regarding the pacifist perspective. He did a good job, but his heart is with those who run toward the sound of gunfire. He had a section on "tactical breathing", in counseling we called it deep relaxation breathing, or anti-anxiety breathing. The simple fact is that it is very difficult to be anxious when you control your breathing by doing a simple breathing in with a count of 5 and breathing out with a count of 10 (or other similar ratios of in to out breathing). Many years ago I used to practice this a great deal to prepare myself for gymnastics meets. I would do it at night before going to sleep and pair it with visualizing my gymnastics routines, I kind of think most of us did this in one form or another, combining relaxation with visualization rehearsal inwardly. What I found interesting was a little comment he had about a woman who found she could control her acid reflux symptoms this way. As a person who suffers from acid reflux I wondered if it would work? As a physician I thought it seemed a little crazy. So, I have experimented with it many times now. And, to my great surprise, I can relieve my acid reflux with breathing exercises when I go to bed. I'm not sure what happens after I fall asleep, but I was quite surprised to find that 2 minutes of relaxation breathing would control it quite nicely. For me, this pearl alone was worth reading the book. All opinions are mine and solely mine. Curtis Climer, MD |
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