PTSD and Folk Therapy

John Paul Wallis and Jay Mechling are fluent in the vocabulary, premises, and current concerns of contemporary academic social critique, yet are still readable and reflective in tone—helpfully sharing their own multi-faceted personal connections to their topic. Some readers may wonder if it is more the erosion of traditional masculinity, rather than its perseverance, that is among America’s major ailments. Nevertheless, folklorists and military personnel alike will be enriched by reflecting on what the authors have drawn from both the mainstream and unusual backwaters of military experience—customs and practices that provide identity, order, and siblinghood in high-stress situations and, afterwards, help manage strong and persistent combat-related emotions. This may be the most compelling book to take seriously the potential therapeutic benefits of folk-psychological insight since David Hufford’s The Terror that Comes in the Night nearly forty years ago. It is a welcome push for the field to continue recognizing folkloric processes at work in unexpected forms and unexpected places. -- Eric A. Eliason, professor of folklore, Brigham Young University, co-editor of Warrior Ways: Explorations in Modern Military Folklore