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Abstract

The significance of the body has emerged as a vital yet neglected element in the transition from military to civilian life. The recognition of a military body enhances the understanding of potential pastoral and counseling needs among veterans beyond the mind and the soul. This article attempts to contribute to further knowledge about this topic, drawing from both theory and empirical research, in an effort to provide insights for pastoral care and counseling.

Keywords

Military veteran body transition pastoral care

Introduction

Every service member has to transition from military to civilian life at some point in their life and a shared conclusion among numerous researchers is that the transition and reintegration into civilian life is potentially challenging for many service members. It may impact the service members’ health, well-being, family life, employment and financial situation, and capacity for social interactions (Adler, Zamorski, & Britt, 2011; Beder, 2012; Blackburn, 2016; Bragin, 2010; Brunger, Serrato, & Ogden, 2013; Burkhart & Hogan, 2015; Jolly, 1996; Moore, 2012). One reason for this is that the military culture develops and rewards values, meanings, and practices which are different than civilian norms. It has been suggested that some of the major features of military culture are a collectivistic life, intense camaraderie, a rigid hierarchy and chain of command, uniform clothing, obedience, loyalty, mission focus prior to and during operations or deployment, and military-specific training, skills and vernacular to break the civilian taboo of killing other humans during combat (Brotz & Wilson, 1946; Hall, 2012a, 2012b; Huntington, 1957; Strachan, 2006; Verrips, 2006; Wilson, 2008; Woodward & Jenkings, 2011). This also implies that military contexts and cultures shape powerful personal narratives or storied identities that are not only different from civilian identities but are also a challenge for service members to reconstruct during the transition from military to civilian life (Grimell, 2018b). Additionally, in the aftermath of military service personal narratives can host a variety of internal struggles and psychiatric/psychological trauma which may never fully leave veterans and inhibit the mental return to how it was before enlistment (Coll, Weiss, & Yarvis, 2012).

In Scandinavia the estimated incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans is low (approximately 5% in Sweden and Denmark) while in the USA it is much higher (approximately 20%), but comparing the incidence rate of PTSD across nations is not the only way to anticipate and approach potential needs for pastoral care and counseling among veterans (Grimell, 2018a). Moral injury (MI) (Litz et al., 2009) and spiritual injury (SI) (Berg, 2011; cf. Tick, 2005) are recently developed ways of understanding toilsome internal struggles in complementary ways which do not fall under the category of the clinical and psychiatric diagnosis of PTSD; however, there are major areas of overlap which need to be further addressed and researched (Drescher et al., 2011). The emerging field of MI has elicited particular interest in relation to pastoral care and counseling (Brock & Lettini, 2012; Graham, 2017; Stallinga, 2013).

A reason for this development is that the complexity of the implications from deployment and combat among veterans have been better nuanced, recognized, and acknowledged in recent years. This development goes beyond a traditional reductionist psychiatric and clinical approach to recovery since the biopsychosocial model of human behavior seems to fail to fully resonate with the adversities and struggles generated by military service. These adversities are often magnified during reintegration into civilian society. This current research in clinical practice indicates that recovery from PTSD and MI may actually benefit from a complementary approach of psychological/clinical treatment and pastoral/spiritual counseling (Bobrow, Cook, Knowles, & Vieten, 2013; Koenig et al., 2017; Wortmann et al., 2017). This may not come as a surprise for pastoral and spiritual caregivers since forgiveness, reconciliation, and atonement for the individual’s acts which transgress the inner moral code or violate the individual’s relationship with God and their fellow human being are crucial aspects of most world religions, Christianity included.

This suggests that a holistic approach to treatment—a biopsychosocial–spiritual (BS) model (Berg, 2011; Tick, 2005)—is significant for a potential recovery and healing which will resonate within the wholeness of veterans regardless of whether the issues revolve around PTSD, MI, SI, and/or the reconstruction of personal narratives or storied identities amid the transition and reintegration into civilian society. In this article I prefer to title this holistic BS model the mind–body–soul (MBS) model since it better resonates with the purpose of this article to highlight the importance of the military body for pastoral care and counseling among veterans. Using this approach, the mind includes the psychosocial dimension, the body host the biological dimension, and the soul encapsulates the spiritual dimension of a person. The concept of the soul in this model concurs with Graham’s (2017) suggestion that the soul is the location of a person’s most sacred aspirations and their deepest pains. It also represents the person’s moral center or compass. The soul is contextually creative in that it is engaged in a dynamic integrative interplay between the individual, communities, and cultures. Graham also emphasized the intimate dynamic relationship between the body and the soul. Graham argues that the soul is an integrating center, and that personal trauma is not an isolated element of a person’s life, but rather grows into an ongoing permanent substructure of the soul.

The importance of understanding the military body has become apparent to me recently as I completed a longitudinal and qualitative research project on Swedish service members transitioning from the military to civilian life (Grimell, 2018b). I suggest that the military body may be wrongfully neglected in favor of the mind and soul during discussions on veteran’s reintegration into civilian life. In addition to this insight, a clinical diagnosis such as PTSD also manifests itself through somatic symptoms and reactions such as arousal, agitation, and increased heart rate and respiration. Taken together, the body represents an element of particular importance which can enhance the general understanding of veteran struggles. Despite this, the body is rarely isolated for exploration and discussion except when combat trauma results in amputation (Haynie & Shepherd, 2011). The purpose of this article is to widen the understanding of the body in relation to transitioning veterans and military personnel regardless of physical trauma. Insights into the bodily dimension may present new perspectives and avenues for pastoral caregivers and counselors when working with veteran or active duty military personnel.

This article will continue with an exploration of military identity construction focused on how a military body emerges, then it will present a number of case studies which highlight the body amid transition from military to civilian life, and it will conclude with a discussion of the implications for pastoral care and counseling.

Military Cultures Shape Embodied Identities

There exists numerous military cultures (which encompass various values, meanings, and practices) and contexts (e.g., basic training, garrison duty, combat and noncombat deployments) among military units; therefore, there are many nuances and not “one military culture” or “one military identity.” Despite these differences there are also shared themes among different military cultures and many researchers in psychology and sociology agree that a common thread is a collective and anti-individualistic perspective, which places battle buddies, the group, and the community first (French, 2005; Sørensen, 2011; Woodward, 2008). Therefore, community, camaraderie, training, and operationalized values (i.e., loyalty, discipline, obedience, and endurance) are all traditionally accepted examples of military cultural phenomena (Brotz & Wilson, 1946; Hall, 2012a, 2012b; Huntington, 1957; Wilson, 2008) which work towards designing and shaping military identities. Additionally, researchers have suggested that another important component of the military identity is competence and expertise in professional skills, and a fictive historical kinship with previous service members (Woodward & Jenkings, 2011).

Following these accepted examples, I suggest that the bodies of service members are one of the most important aspects of creating and maintaining military identities. The body serves as the vessel which by necessity must embody and perform military-specific tasks to a high standard. Ultimately, military service is predominately a physical endeavor and the military profession can only be mastered by shaping the body through performance-focused activities with military-specific meanings. The overwhelming emphasis on physical performance at boot camp or basic training is not an abnormality during military service, but actually represents the road to success in the military. Military identities are learned and developed via the body, and service members are regimented by physical performance (Thornborrow & Brown, 2009). The strengths of the body are saluted and promoted through esteemed values such as discipline, endurance, obedience, and the capacity to perform despite hunger, thirst, fatigue, and adversity caused by inclement weather, or even direct, life-threatening opposition in combat (French, 2005; cf. Goldstein, 2001). Conversely, the weakness of the body is one of the most feared and unaccepted conditions of military cultures, especially the more radicalized ones. Herein lies a major identified health challenge since service members are reluctant to seek mental health support when the bodily system is overly stressed because of the fear of stigmatization for being perceived by themselves or others as weak (Bryan & Morrow, 2011). Service members tend to maintain the image of physical and mental fortitude (i.e., the mask) as long as possible (Wertsch, 1991). Perhaps, if help was sought sooner and interventions were carried out earlier more severe psychiatric conditions could be avoided.

The researcher and psychologist Shay, has presented invaluable insights on combat veteran identity development through his books Odysseus in America: Combat trauma and the trails of homecoming (2002) and Achilles in Vietnam: Combat trauma and the undoing of character (2003). Shay presents two understandings of PTSD which are relevant for this article’s position on the body in military contexts. Shay suggests that with simple PTSD the bodily system has adjusted to the conditions of the war zone and combat in order to survive, and that the body cannot readjust when transitioning and reintegrating into civilian society and life. The body remains in survival mode which was a natural adaptation to combat. Once the body has adjusted to war the body may continue to reflexively react to seemingly harmless triggers in civilian life. Complex PTSD includes the physical problems of simple PTSD, but adds the mental inability to trust people or institutions. Similarly, the pastoral theologian Graham (2017) suggests that MIs cannot be understood solely through a mental perspective but must also include the bodily dimension (cf. Capps, 2008).

While the BS model suggests a holistic approach of interdependent and intertwined relationships it fails to recognize the prominence of the body in military personnel and their cultivated military identities. I suggest that utilizing an MBS approach has a hitherto unrecognized advantage when addressing veterans who have developed a salient military identity that is strongly linked with their physical military body. Unfortunately, the clinical and psychiatric paradigm of the Western world tends to highlight the psychosocial dimensions while treating biological concerns as mere symptoms of the mind. Instead, this article suggests that the body has a more prominent position during military identity construction and therefore has a larger impact on identity reconstruction following service. The remainder of this article will highlight the importance of the body in military identity formation and its implications during transition from military to civilian life.

Leaving Military Service with a Military Body

The cases studies which will be presented in this section serve to highlight the importance of the body and physical performance in military cultures and identities. Furthermore, these case studies serve to advance how military bodies influence service members amid the transition into civilian life. Mandatory research information will follow in order to safeguard the academic integrity of the article and the cases. The cases to be presented were derived from a longitudinal research project titled “Reconsidering the Uniform” (Grimell, 2018b). The research project was launched in 2013 and followed nineteen Swedish service members during their transitions from military to civilian life, and in some cases their return to part-time or full-time military service. The purpose of the project was to explore and describe existential and/or religious dimensions in identity reconstruction over an extended period of time due to the paucity of longitudinal, empirical, or theological studies in this area. The interview phase included three annual interviews per participant and occurred from 2013 to 2016.

A snowball sampling method was applied in collaboration with a Swedish military regiment to accumulate a purposeful selection which included nineteen participants (sixteen males and three females) who varied in terms of age, rank, branches, mission experiences, and total years of service. Each and every participant was informed about the study by a letter of information which presented the background of the project (i.e., a need to gain knowledge about the process of transition among service members) and described the purpose of the project, formalities, research ethics, anonymity, and publishing. This letter was distributed by postal service or email, and the participants had to complete a response letter and return it. This response letter also served as the informed consent agreement. In the response letter the participants were required, among a number of things, to suggest a time and place to conduct the interviews.

All of the participants had voluntarily terminated their military service due to a range of factors including: disappointment in the employer; stagnation of professional/personal development; curiosity to explore new avenues in life; retirement opportunities; or completion of service contracts. More than half of the sample had been deployed to Afghanistan, Kosovo, or Mali. None of the participants had been diagnosed with PTSD.

All participants in this article have through the informed consent process and informed consent agreement given their approval to present their cases. Some of the presented details of the cases have been slightly altered or omitted to safeguard the anonymity of the participants (e.g., explicit information about regiment, unit, names of significant others, explicit studies, explicit work place/tasks, and so on). Their names are altered, but the ranks are correct. Narrative accounts from some of these cases have also been presented elsewhere (e.g., Grimell, 2017, 2018b, 2018c, 2019) but this article presents a unique focus and perspective on military bodies in relation to pastoral care and counseling.

Platoon Commander Lieutenant John

John was approaching his thirties when he joined the research project and had served for about seven years in the Swedish Marines. John originally enlisted and found military service stimulating. Near the end of his enlistment John’s platoon commander recommended that John continue serving in the Marines and seek an instructor position, which John did. After serving as an instructor for a period, he was again encouraged by his commanding officer to apply to the Military Academy to obtain a commission as an officer. John once again followed this advice, graduated from the academy, and went on to serve as a platoon commander. One of John’s persisting memories which he repeatedly revisited during his interviews was the evolution of his body and physical capacity to perform and endure physical challenges. John described himself as very thin when he entered the military, but during his time in the military he had gained about fourteen kilos (30 pounds) of muscle. John had cultivated and shaped a powerful body that embodied his military identity, and was both explicit (i.e., narrative identity, unit affiliation, uniform, and rank) and implicit (i.e., illustrated and performed by and through his body). One of John’s persisting memories was when he and his buddies endured an extremely demanding long-term exercise in pursuit of a position with a prestigious military unit. Their exemplary physical and mental endurance allowed them to overcome the obstacles in their path and culminated in their acceptance into the unit during a battalion ritual. This achievement represented the peak of John’s physical training and allowed him to fulfill his dream of serving in this prestigious unit.

In addition to this exclusively military achievement John, individually and as part of a team, also participated in challenging, adventurous, and endurance-based civilian competitions with a strong resemblance to grueling military field exercises. One of the most significant aspects of his military identity was the continuous shaping and training of his body in various ways both inside and outside of the military context.

This identity followed John when he attempted to transition from the military into the university setting. During this transition he experienced identity confusion largely due to his peers and professors’ criticism of the military community and its purpose. John perceived this as a personal attack, and he in turn criticized his peers. One purely bodily aspect of his critiques focused on the body of one of his civilian peers which John perceived as undisciplined. He compared this perceived weakness with his own ability to control his body under stressful academic situations in the classroom. His statements about self-control and physical discipline also served to implicitly esteem military culture over of civilian culture. After a time of failed adjustment to civilian life John aborted his transition from the military and returned to active duty service and a deployment to a war zone.

Military Analyst Sergeant Emma

Emma was in her mid-twenties when she joined the research project and had served for four years in the Swedish Marines. She had been deployed to Afghanistan and was serving as a military analyst when she decided to transition from military to civilian life. Emma had enjoyed the physical aspect of her conscription and continued military service. As she put it, she “totally embraced the physical part of the military identity.” Over the years Emma cultivated new military bodily skills and utilizing these new military skills she began to participate in civilian competitions which were similar to military exercises in content and style. Emma recounted that the solution to the problems in her life, whenever they occurred, was to engage in physical training and enduring psychical activities.

Emma transitioned from military to civilian life and eventually found employment as a police analyst where she could utilize some of her military analytical skills. She narrated that this job stimulated her on an intellectual level but completely failed to stimulate her on the physical level. Occasionally, Emma was incredibly frustrated by the absence of bodily performance and activities in her employment. She tackled this situation through physical training and by becoming a personal trainer in her free time.

Emma described that her body was connected to her military identity as a Sergeant in an interesting way. Emma was required to talk in front of new groups of people at her office. She gradually noticed that she had changed her body posture from a casual civilian stance to that of a military professional (i.e., she stood fully erect, moved in regimented way, assumed the military “at ease position,” and talked in a different way). She titled this bodily change as “the Sergeant.” While it was awkward for Emma to slowly discover this physical shift in response to nervousness, she also appreciated it since it facilitated her initiation of uncomfortable exchanges. Once she had become accustomed to the crowd she could revert to her civilian posture and put away the “Sergeant” persona.

Emma continued to serve part-time in the military reserves which she enjoyed. Emma narrated that this connection with the military made her transition much smoother than being left without any military connections.

Squad Commander Sergeant David

David joined the research project when he was around twenty-three years old and had served for over three years in the Army. His decision to leave active service was motivated by an injury to his back. The unit which David belonged to had high standards for the physical and mental performance of the individual soldiers and for the unit as a whole. The injury to the back gradually worsened and when David felt that he could no longer meet these high standards he decided to voluntarily end his service. This was a long and difficult process for David because he was living his dream as a squad commander in the unit. Therefore, he pushed himself to serve as long possible despite his injury in order to live up to his ideals of commitment, loyalty, and pride. David narrated that prior to his departure from the Army he felt that he would be worthless in civilian life and began to use alcohol to tackle his terrible anxiety due to the transition from military to civilian life. Once back in the civilian life, David struggled for two years to reintegrate into civilian society but did not manage to find a new identity, employment, or meaning. His bodily injury constantly reminded him of his loss and David could not get any peace of mind to continue adapting to civilian life. After two years, David’s injury healed and his body was finally fit for military service. David immediately reenlisted, and he recounted that while the previous two years had been filled with darkness, he could finally experience the joy of being back in uniform which was his one and only priority, his life.

Platoon Commander Lieutenant Maria

Maria was a platoon commander with eleven years of service when she joined the research project. She had a background in the Army and was in her early thirties. The transition to civilian life was a struggle for Maria since her military identity was salient and strongly integrated into her self-perception. Her military identity was also deeply embodied and inherently performed.

Maria endured the transition and eventually reconstructed a new narrative identity with meaning within a civilian context. For some time, she had been employed by a civilian company to work with leadership development. Maria decided that it was best for her to fully leave the military life behind and have no military strings attached at all. Yet she testified that the military part of her, her military self, still existed three years after leaving the service, and still unexpectedly manifested itself while working in the professional civilian setting similar to the before mentioned example of Emma. According to Maria, her physical presence altered when this identity shift occurred and she adopted a different tone of the voice, a distinct physical bearing when approaching others, and a different way of controlling and leading others.

In contrast to Emma’s experience, Maria discovered quickly in her new civilian profession that her previous military mannerisms associated with being an officer (i.e., firm, distinct, decisive, and result-driven) did not work at all for a female within a civilian context. Therefore, she had to develop a new embodied identity as a civilian employee which did not include her previously cultivated military features such as physical presence or commanding leadership.

Interpreter Sergeant Helen

Helen served for about three years in the Swedish Marines and was in her mid-twenties when she joined the research project. Helen had been deployed to Afghanistan where she had been engaged in combat multiple times. She emphasized how important and demanding the physical tests were for her, and for all her peers regardless of gender, during basic training. She had to work hard to pass the tests. In some rare instances, when the test was based on the body weight, she even outperformed her male buddies and this made her exceedingly proud. However, her male buddies were irritated by this fact and they bullied her by claiming that the one who scored highest on that test was from now required to carry the most weight in the platoon. Physical capacity and performance were so important in Helen’s military culture that her performance challenged the expectations of the normative male body during this particular test and elicited a powerful reaction from her male buddies. Eventually, Helen left military service. But patrolling with heavy equipment during combat operations had created chronic muscular skeletal injuries. Ultimately, Helen’s desire to physically perform created bodily injuries.

Sharp Shooter Private First Class Mattias

Mattias had served two years in the Army and was in his mid-twenties when he joined the research project. Mattias testified on the importance of the body in military service. He stated that the only thing that mattered in the military was how well one performed physically, and that one was valued for their physical capacity and performance. Mattias believed that service members earned the respect of their peers and superiors through demonstrations of their physical ability.

Technician Sergeant Erik

Erik had a background in the Navy and had served for about five years. His service included several deployments to Afghanistan and elsewhere, and he was in his mid-twenties when he joined the research project. Erik recounted that after his most recent deployment to Afghanistan his body remained in deployment mode. He stayed alert, on over watch, and was agitated and on the move causing him to have difficulty relaxing. The military tactical mode was not something that existed only in his mind, but was integrated into his body (e.g., in maneuvering a car, walking, and observing). It actually took several months for his body to gradually leave the deployment mode and return to the relaxed civilian mode which he had prior to the deployment. Yet Erik related that after this transition he still automatically reverted into a tactical military mode when he felt unsafe or exposed, for example, when walking home late at night. Then his body reflexively moved in a military way, he was more alert, and observant of people and his surroundings. Despite his transition, Erik experienced these shifts as very distinct alterations to his body and physical bearing.

Discussion

A known, utilized, and promising approach to pastoral care and counseling is a narrative approach. It has for some time been advocated by esteemed pastoral theologians such as Capps (1984, 1998) and Capps and Fowler (2001). For example, the story model (Capps, 2001) suggests that the content of the counselee’s story is of critical importance because both the challenges and the possibilities of change are inherent in the story itself. But this model also advocates that the self is supposed to exist independently of the story. These two maxims (of the four presented by Capps) are important in the consideration of the body: the challenges and possibilities of a military body can be explicitly illustrated in the story, but they may also exist independently of the story as implicit or hidden dimensions. Through these maxims four reflections will unfold in this section which presents explorative aspects of the body when caring for or counseling military personnel and/or veterans.

First, a narrative approach to care and counseling rightly places the emphasis on personal stories. Yet there is also a danger with this focus because the body may not be so easily demonstrated through a story approach when the primary focuses of the narratives are supposedly the mind and the soul. However, this article, and especially the real-life case studies, has illustrated the importance of the body in military cultures and contexts. Most service members, regardless of gender, have had to struggle to develop their bodies in numerous ways to succeed within their military contexts. Veterans may show resistance to abandoning their military bodies amid civilian life. The military body may also become such a crucial part of their lives that such bodily dimensions become unconscious to various degrees. Additionally, there is a military cultural inclination to minimize or ignore both bodily and internal sufferings and injuries (Bryan & Morrow, 2011; Wertsch, 1991). The content of the care seeker’s story may therefore not satisfactory address the importance of the body. This may in part depend upon the fact that the care seeker fails to fully see and narrate the role that the military body plays in his or her life. Traditionally, issues which cause military personal or veterans to seek out pastoral care and counseling are first and foremost ascribed to the domain of the mind (i.e., psychosocial dimension) or the soul (i.e., spiritual dimension), while the body may have an unrecognized but more important position than previously assumed. A somatic experience which is felt by the consciousness may not have its root in the mind or the soul but in the body itself. In correspondence to this potential bias or pre-understanding is the interpretation of the story made by the caregiver or counselor where too much emphasis may be placed on the mind and the soul rather than the body. This suggests that both the care seeker and caregiver may benefit by giving special attention to the role of the military body amid transition and reintegration into civilian society and life.

Second, the military body can be metaphorically described in many different ways, such as “the disciplined body,” “the militarized body,” “the enduring body,” “the injured body,” “the scared body,” “the marked body,” “the suffering body,” or “the silent body,” to name a few. All these titles can illustrate how a body has been culturally and contextually shaped by military service. This suggests that military personnel and veterans gradually become their bodies over time, and that other types of cultural bodies may take a very long time to cultivate after transition. It is not possible to just undo the military body, but as Capps (2001) implies, the self also exists independently of an embodied story. This suggests that in time a new embodied identity can be cultivated but this requires time, motivation, support, and courage. Since the soul is contextually creative and engaged in a dynamic integrative interplay between the body and the mind of the individual, communal life, and cultures there is the possibility of bodily change which may be of better service to a veteran in civilian life. But even if alternative identities are constructed, cases such as Emma’s and Maria’s illustrate that the military body may still exist independently of new personal narratives.

Third, moral and spiritual injuries tend to be described to occur through violation or transgression of a moral code located within an individual, whether it is described as the mind (Litz et al., 2009), the soul (Graham, 2017), or the inner defining core of a person (Tick, 2005). Graham (2017) suggests that soul is an integrating center of a person, and argues that personal trauma is not a contained and isolated element of a person’s life, but rather grows into an ongoing permanent substructure of the soul. Additionally, Graham emphasizes the intimate dynamic relationship between the body and the soul. Therefore, I wish to advocate the possibility that combat or military trauma may be closely linked to the military body and not just to the inner part or the soul of a person. Within religious traditions, rituals tend to focus on doing things with the body that can be utterly sacred actions that combine both bodily performances and the workings of God or other sacred agents (Ramshaw, 1987). This may serve as a reason for the potential of religious rituals as pathways to heal moral injuries recently articulated within clinical practice (Wortmann et al., 2017). It can too easily be assumed that rituals work predominately through the mind or the soul of a person, but the involvement of the body is also critical to the performance of rituals. Religious rituals can introduce a different cultural body type/expression (i.e., suffering, weakness, agony, and tears) than those found in military cultures and may facilitate healing and recovery among veterans. In addition, rituals illustrate another embodied story of life which may support bodily change, inner growth, and identity development among veterans alongside the military body.

Fourth, in the Bible there is wisdom to be found regarding ancient combat veterans and their struggles in both military and civilian life. Recently the Biblical Combat Veteran Types (Grimell, 2018d, 2018e) were developed using Biblical stories to introduce four responses to combat, including the Saul type (who represented the development of complex PTSD), the David type (who illustrated resilience), the Joab type (who developed MI), and the Uriah type (who demonstrated unfaltering adherence to warrior ethics). As the founder of these types I also suggest that these types represent different military bodies which may be introduced in care and counseling. The Saul type represents a combination of “the militarized body” (skillful and efficient in battle) and “the agitated body” (with unpredictable somatic arousal and aggression), the David type represents a combination of “the militarized body” (skillful and efficient in battle) and “the aesthetic body” (committed to alternate cultural expressions through dance, music, creative writing, and art), the Joab type represents a combination of “the militarized body” (skillful and efficient in battle) and “the revenging body” (because of MI and betrayal he sought vengeance for his dead brother by killing others), and the Uriah type which represents a combination of “the militarized body” (skillful and efficient in battle) and “the disciplined body” (that never fails to uphold the warrior’s ethics).

The degrees to which these bodily types may be illustrated in real-life differ from person to person and they are therefore to be understood as broader categories. For example, Sergeant Erik had a hard time readjusting his body post-deployment, and showed a tendency towards ‘the agitated body’ which may suggest that if he had continued to deploy that it could have impacted his physical condition negatively. Furthermore, the David type suggests that military personnel and veterans may develop better resilience by the cultivation of alternative or creative bodily types beyond their military ones. A powerful lived military story does not exclusively bind a person to a military body. Rather, from the perspective of a soul which is contextually creative and engaged in a dynamic interplay between the body and the mind, communal life, and culture there is always the hope to explore the potential for bodily change resulting in the combination of seemingly paradoxical body types.

Concluding Remarks

The MBS approach serves a holistic purpose to better address the distinct needs of military personnel and veterans. When service members leave military service, they do so with their military bodies, and how to help them adapt all aspects of their military identity to civilian life merits further investigation and reflection. Recently, several biblical stories about Jesus’ healing have been reevaluated to focus on the role of the body, and this research has highlighted the intimate and interactive relationship between the body and the internal struggles and emotional wellbeing of biblical care seekers (Capps, 2008). This biblical insight applies to contemporary pastoral care and counseling for veterans, and pastors and counselors must be attentive listeners (Capps, 1998) for explicit or implicit stories about the body. Ultimately, healing and growth for veterans in their civilian lives may depend on bringing the body to the forefront of pastoral care instead of confining it to the margins of their identity.

Footnotes

Jan Grimell, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam Centre for the Study of Lived Religion). He has conducted a longitudinal interview study on nineteen Swedish service members amid their transition from military to civilian life, with the purpose to describe the role of existential and/or religious dimensions in identity reconstruction during the process. Several articles from the project have been published. Additionally, he has developed the Biblical Combat Veteran Types. Jan is also an ordained minister in the Church of Sweden and a former military officer in the Swedish Armed Forces; he served actively for ten years on several locations inside and outside of Sweden and is currently a reserve officer.

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Leaving Military Service with a Military Body: Insights for Pastoral Care and Counseling

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Military Cultures Shape Embodied Identities

Leaving Military Service with a Military Body

Platoon Commander Lieutenant John

Military Analyst Sergeant Emma

Squad Commander Sergeant David

Platoon Commander Lieutenant Maria

Interpreter Sergeant Helen

Sharp Shooter Private First Class Mattias

Technician Sergeant Erik

Discussion

Concluding Remarks

Footnotes

References