The Term "PTSD" Hides the Truth

The controversial comedian George Carlin died a little over a year ago. I think the world is a duller place without him. Here is his riff on euphemisms —he's particularly angry here about the use of the term "PTSD," or "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." He thinks that "soft language" hides the reality and the humanity of what happens in combat when a fighting person's nervous system is stressed to its absolute maximum and cannot take any more. Here are Carlin's comments:

"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that.

"There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap.

"In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves.

"That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue.

"Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, we're up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car.

"Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha."

Nice reviews for The Box from Braunau!

I was happy to see my book get positive reviews from several blogs over the last week, so I'm going to spotlight three of them here.

• Lavanya Karthik, of Mumbai, writes in her Bookpleasures review:

"Soldiers aren't the only casualties of war," says author Jan Elvin in the afterword of this engrossing and well written memoir.

• Emily Decobert of Bookpleasures, has this to say:

What parts [her father] didn't write about, Ms. Elvin fills in the blanks with careful research. It gives a vibrant, living real experience, a snap shot of some of the worst fighting in WWII.

• Lois Henderson writes in her review in Bookpleasures:

Well illustrated with black and white photographs, and supplemented by a comprehensive index, bibliography and glossary, this part history part memoir is of importance to scholar and general reader alike.

The Box from Braunau provides accessible and informative reading for all those interested in journalism and the social dynamics of warfare.

And please see my guest post at the Amacom author blog site, where I write about Five Things I Wish I'd Asked My Father about World War II.

On Father's Day

This will be the fifth Father's Day without my father, and I miss him. Not that we did much to mark the day — a card, brunch with my husband and son and any siblings who could make the trek. He never wanted a fuss made over him about anything. I recently found a letter I wrote him one Father's Day, nineteen years ago, noting the things that made him a wonderful dad.

Among them were his sense of loyalty to family, his integrity, his "brains," the trips we took to Glen Echo Park, the pool, and his love of his newspaperman job. He didn't say too much about the letter other than a sincere thanks for it. But he started writing some of his own. On my 50th birthday Dad sent a card that said, "As you consider your 50th, with mixed feelings, it may be of interest that, at the age of 78, I am enjoying one of the happiest years of my life."

That's really the best gift, and one I want to remember in regard to my son and all those relatives younger than I: creating a happy life is the best thing you can do for yourself, and for your children.

The photo is of Dad and me at Deep Creek Lake in Oakland, Maryland.

Holocaust Memorial Museum Shooting

I just heard about the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington a few hours ago. I wasn't going to write about it, mostly because it looks to be a "lone shooter," James von Brunn, an 89-year old white supremacist who has apparently spent his life on a crusade against the government.

It appears to be one man who acted alone, although he wants to represent a vast conspiracy of haters bent on shooting innocent people, including families with children, who would visit the Museum on a warm afternoon in June. 

Why give someone like that more attention? I thought. I'm tired of seeing the ranters and twisters of the truth get airtime. I would rather focus my attention on and wishes for recovery for the security guard who was injured by the shooter, and his or her family. The guard is in critical condition as I write this. So is the alleged shooter.

But then I began to listen to Northeastern University criminologist Jack Levin, an expert on hate crimes. I felt sick listening to him as he tried to shed light on the shooting. He was aware of the anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-anything-not-Aryan ravings posted on Von Brunn's and other's websites. He said, "I would have to say that this is part of the 'Obama effect.' " While many people like President Obama, Levin said, and see his leadership as unifying, some, "not many, but some people feel threatened." 

Professor Levin felt the shooting signifies a broad dissatisfaction (to put it mildly) with the election of a black president. 

Could it trigger something more violent? asked the CNN reporter. Professor Levin replied that this type of hate crime has increased as a result of Obama's campaign. The white supremacists are incensed at seeing blacks and Jews in the White House.

The state of the economy, along with the unprecedented numbers of immigrants, makes these people feel even more threatened. Somebody has got to be blamed for it. 

Von Brunn believes, not surprisingly, that the Holocaust is a hoax. 

People go to the Holocaust Museum to learn about the long and detestable history of hate crimes, seen through the lens of events surrounding World War II. The visitors to the Museum, and all of us, today learned that there's nothing new under the sun. When I told my husband about the shootings, he shook his head and said, "It never ends." 

The Jack Levin interview