Moral Injury Resources

VETERANS RESOURCES

Webinars

• Monthly webinar series on military moral injury by Soul Repair Center, Brite Divinity School, co-sponsored by the Shay Center of VOA.
• The Implications of the Pandemic for Moral Injury in Veterans (November 2020)
• Moral Injury among Medical and Spiritual Caregivers in Civilian, Military, and VA Hospitals (December 2020) and Powerpoint handout
• Dementia Care for Aging Veterans affected by Moral Injury (January 2021) and Powerpoint handout
• Women, Military Sexual Trauma, and Moral Injury: Stand Up Speak Up (February 2021)

Videos

• Introducing The Shay Moral Injury Center at Volunteers of America
• Jonathan Shay interview on PBS (May 29, 2010)
• Understanding Moral Injury: What Can We Do
• Resilience Strength Training | Moral Injury Veterans Program
• Volunteers of America CEO Speaks to the Personal Side of Moral Injury

Films

• Almost Sunrise (documentary about moral injury in veterans)
• Veterans Journey Home (documentary series)

Links

• Center for Post Traumatic Growth
• Moral Injury article by VA PTSD website
• Moral Injury Support Network for Servicewomen, Inc.
• Road Home Program, The National Center of Excellence for Veterans and Their Families at Rush
• Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School

Books

• Brock, Rita Nakashima and Lettini, Gabriella (2012). Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Boudeau, Tyler E. (2008). Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine. Feral House.
• Holm, Tom (1996). Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Keenan, Melinda J.; Williams Laura; and Echevarria, Carlos (2020). Understanding & Healing Moral Injury in People of Service: Veterans, First Responders & Medical Personnel. Independently published.
• Klay, Phil (2014). Redeployment. New York: Penguin Books.
• Lifton, Robert Jay (1973). Home From the War: Learning from Vietnam Veterans. New York: Other Press.
• Litz, Brett T.; Lebowitz, Leslie; Gray, Matt J.; and Nash, William P. (2015). Adaptive Disclosure: A New Treatment for Military Trauma, Loss, and Moral Injury. New York: Guilford.
• Marlantes, Karl (2011). What It Is Like to Go to War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
• Meagher, Robert Emmet (2014). Killing From The Inside Out: Moral Injury And Just War. Eugene: Cascade Books.
• Meagher, Robert E.; Pryer, Douglas A.; Nash, William P.; and Acampora, Christa Davis (Eds.) (2018). War and Moral Injury: A Reader. Eugene: Cascade Books.
• Moon, Zachary (2019). Warriors Between Worlds: Moral Injury and Identities in Crisis. Lanham: Lexington Books.
• Moral Injury Support Network for Servicewomen Inc. (2021). Select Proceedings from the 2020 Women Veterans Military Moral Injury Conferences. Independently published.
• O’Brien, Tim (1998). The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway Books.
• Shay, Jonathan (1995). Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and The Undoing of Character. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Shay, Jonathan (2002). Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and The Trials of Homecoming. New York: Scribner.
• Sherman, Nancy (2015). Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Sherman, Nancy (2011). The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers. New York. W W. Norton & Company.
• Sites, Kevin (2013). The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won’t Tell You About What They’ve Seen, Done, or Failed to Do in War. New York: Harper Perennial.
• Verkamp, Bernard J. (2006). Moral Treatment of Returning Warriors in Early Medieval and Modern Times. Scranton: University of Scranton Press.
• Wood, David (2016). What Have We Done? The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars. New York: Little, Brown, & Co.

Articles

• Nash, Bill (May 6, 2020). Because We Care – Risk for Moral Injury During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Center for Deployment Psychology.
• Harwood-Gross, Anna (Mar. 24, 2020). Treating “Moral” Injuries. Scientific American.
• Brock, Rita Nakashima (Sept. 2019). The Battle Inside. Military Officer.
• Kuz, Martin (Nov. 7, 2019). For US veterans, what does it mean to heal a moral injury? The Christian Science Monitor.
• Brock, Rita Nakashima (Apr. 6, 2018). The Link Between Moral Injury & Veteran Suicides. The Washington.
• Puniewska, Maggie (July 3, 2015). Healing a Wounded Sense of Morality. The Atlantic.
• Wood, David (Mar. 2014). A Warrior’s Moral Dilemma (3 part series). Huffington Post.
• Guntzel, Jeff Severns (Mar. 14, 2013). Beyond PTSD to “Moral Injury”. On Being.
• Dokoupil, Tony (Dec. 3, 2012). A New Theory of PTSD and Veterans: Moral Injury. Newsweek.

Journal Articles

• Barth, Timothy M.; Lord, Charles G.; Thakkar, Vishal J.; and Brock, Rita N. (2020). Effects of Resilience Strength Training on Constructs Associated with Moral Injury among Veterans. Journal of Veterans Studies, 6(2), 101-113. DOI: 10.21061/jvs.v6i2.199.
• Nillni, Yael I.; Shayani, Danielle R.; Finley, Erin; Copeland, Laurel A.; Perkins, Daniel F.; Vogt, Dawne S. (2020). The Impact of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury on Women Veterans' Perinatal Outcomes Following Separation From Military Service. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33(3), 248-256. DOI: 10.1002/jts.22509.
• Currier, Joseph M.; Foster, Joshua D.; Isaak, Steven L. (2019). Moral Injury and Spiritual Struggles in Military Veterans: A Latent Profile Analysis. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 32(3), 393-404. DOI: 10.1002/jts.22378.
• Koenig, Harold G.; Youssef, Nagy A.; Pearce, Michelle (2019). Assessment of Moral Injury in Veterans and Active Duty Military Personnel With PTSD: A Review. Front Psychiatry, 10,443. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00443.
• Yeterian, Julie D.; Berke, Danielle S.; Carney, Jessica R.; McIntyre-Smith, Alexandra, St Cyr, Katherine; King, Lisa; Kline, Nora K.; Phelps, Andrea; Litz, Brett T.; and Members of the Moral Injury Outcomes Project Consortium (2019). Defining and Measuring Moral Injury: Rationale, Design, and Preliminary Findings From the Moral Injury Outcome Scale Consortium. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 32(3), 363–372. DOI: 10.1002/jts.22380.
• Enemark, Christian (2019). Drones, risk, and moral injury. Critical Military Studies, 5(2), 150-167. DOI: 10.1080/23337486.2017.1384979.
• Kelley, Michelle L.; Bravo, Adrian J.; Davies, Rachel L.; Hamrick, Hannah C.; Vinci, Christine; and REdman, Jason C. (2019). Moral Injury and Suicidality Among Combat-Wounded Veterans: The Moderating Effects of Social Connectedness and Self-Compassion. Psychological Trauma : Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 11(6), 621-629. DOI: 10.1037/tra0000447.
• Koenig, Harold G.; Ames, Donna; Youssef, Nagy A.; Oliver, John P.; Volk, Fred.; Teng, Ellen J.; Haynes, Kerry; Erickson, Zachary D.; Arnold, Irina; O'Garo, Keisha; Pearce, Michelle (2018). The Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Military Version. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 249-265. DOI: 10.1007/s10943-017-0531-9.
• Koenig, Harold G. (2018). Measuring Symptoms of Moral Injury in Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD. Religions, 9(3), 86-100. DOI: 10.3390/rel9030086.
• Vermetten, Eric and Jetly, Rakesh (2018). A Critical Outlook on Combat-Related PTSD: Review and Case Reports of Guilt and Shame as Drivers for Moral Injury. Military Behavioral Health, 6(2), 156-164. DOI: 10.1080/21635781.2018.1459973.
• Purcell, Natalie; Burkman, Kristine; Keyser, Jessica; Fucella, Phillip; and Maguen, Shira (2018). Healing from Moral Injury: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Impact of Killing Treatment for Combat Veterans. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(6), 645-673. DOI: 10.1080/10926771.2018.1463582.
• Frankfurt, Sheila and Frazier, Patricia (2017). A Review of Research on Moral Injury in Combat Veterans. Military Psychology, 28 (5), 318-330. DOI: 10.1037/mil0000132.
• Koenig, Harold G.; Boucher, Nathan A.; Oliver, John P.; Youssef, Nagy; Mooney, Scott R.; Currier, Joseph M.; Pearce, Michelle (2017). Rationale for Spiritually Oriented Cognitive Processing Therapy for Moral Injury in Active Duty Military and Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 205(2), 147-153. DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000554.
• Yan, Grace W (2016). The Invisible Wound: Moral Injury and Its Impact on the Health of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans. Military Medicine, 181(5), 451-8. DOI: 10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00103.
• Currier, Joseph M.; Drescher, Kent D.; Holland, Jason M.; Lisman, Ross; and Foy, David W. (2016). Spirituality, Forgiveness, and Quality of Life: Testing a Mediational Model with Military Veterans with PTSD. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26(2), 167-179. DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2015.1019793.
• Currier, Joseph M.; Holland, Jason M.; Drescher, Kent; and Foy, David (2015). Initial Psychometric Evaluation of the Moral Injury Questionnaire – Military Version. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 22, 54-63. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.1866.
• Bryan, Craig; Bryan, AnnaBelle; Anestis, Michael; Anestis, Joye; Green, Bradley, Etienne, Neysa; Morrow, Chad; and Ray-Sannerud, Bobbie (2015). Measuring Moral Injury: Psychometric Properties of the Moral Injury Events Scale in Two Military Samples. Assessment, 23(5), 557-570. DOI: 10.1177/1073191115590855.
• Farnsworth, Jacob K.; Drescher, Kent D.; Nieuwsma, Jason A.; Walswe, Robyn B.; and Currier, Joseph M. (2014). The Role of Moral Emotions in Military Trauma: Implications for the Study and Treatment of Moral Injury. Review of General Psychology, 18(4), 249-262. DOI: 10.1037/gpr0000018.
• Bryan, AnnaBelle; Bryan, Craig; Morrow, Chad; Etienne, Neysa; Ray-Sannerud, Bobbie (2014). Moral Injury, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts in a Military Sample. Traumatology, 20(3), 154-160. DOI: 10.1037/h0099852.
• Gray, Matt J.; Schorr, Yonit; Nash, William; Lebowitz, Leslie; Amidon, Amy; Maglione, Melissa; Lang, Ariel J.; and Litz, Brett T. (2012). Adaptive Disclosure: An Open Trial of a Novel Exposure-Based Intervention for Service Members With Combat-Related Psychological Stress Injuries. Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 407-415. DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2011.09.001.
• Worthington, Everett L. and Langberg, Diane (2012). Religious Considerations and Self-Forgiveness in Treating Complex Trauma and Moral Injury in Present and Former Soldiers. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 40(4), 274-288. DOI: 10.1177/009164711204000403.
• Carr, Russell (2011). Combat and human existence: Toward an intersubjective approach to combat-related PTSD. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 28, 471-496. DOI: 10.1037/a0024174.
• Harris, Jeanette; Erbes, Christopher; Engdahl, Brian; Thuras, Paul; Murray-Swank, MIchole; Grace, Dixie; Ogden, Henry; Olson, Raymond; Winskowski, Ann; Bacon, Russ; Malec, Catherine; Campion, Kelsey; and Le, TuVan (2011). Effectiveness of a trauma focused spiritually integrated intervention for veterans exposed to trauma. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67, 425-438. DOI: 10.1002/jclp.20777.
• Shay, Jonathan (2011). Casualties. Daedalus, 140(3), 179-188. DOI: 10.1162/DAED_a_00107.
• Drescher, Kent D.; Foy, David W.; Kelly, Caroline; Leshner, Anna; Schutz, Kerrie; and Ltiz, Brett (2011). An Exploration of the Viability and Usefulness of the Construct of Moral Injury in War Veterans. Traumatology, 17(1), 8-13. DOI: 10.1177/1534765610395615.
• Boudreau, Tyler (2011). The Morally Injured. The Massachusetts Review, 52(3/4), 746-754. ISSN: 0025-4878.
• Drescher, Kent D. and Foy, David W. (2008). When they Come Home: Posttraumatic Stress, Moral Injury, and Spiritual Consequences for Veterans. Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry, 28.
• Boulanger, Ghislaine (2008). Witnesses to Reality: Working Psychodynamically With Survivors of Terror. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 18(5), 638-657. DOI: 10.1080/10481880802297673.