ACHILLES IN

VIETNAM

COMBAT TRAUMA AND THE UNDOING OF CHARACTER

Patricia González Martínez
Nazarena Regalado de León
PREGUNTAS
1.¿Qué pretende Jonathan Shay con este libro?
2.¿Cuáles son los pasos para el “Undoing of the Character”?
3.¿Cómo afecta la muerte de un camarada al propio soldado?
4.¿Cómo y por qué llega el soldado al estado de Berserker?
5.¿Cuáles son las características de ese estado de Berserker?
6.Escoge una cita de las mostradas en las diapositivas e interprétala.
7.¿En qué consiste el Síndrome de Estrés Postraumático?
8.¿Cuáles son sus síntomas?
9.¿Tiene cura el Síndrome de Estrés Postraumático?

10.¿Cómo afectan los familiares a los excombatientes cuando regresan?

ÍNDICE
•Introducción “Achilles in Vietnam” + Guerra de Vietnam

•The Undoing of Character (+pasos)

•Soldados en estado de “Berserker”

•El Trauma de la guerra

•PTSD o Síndrome de Estrés Postraumático

•Conclusiones
INTRODUCCIÓN
•Psiquiatra de un grupo de combatientes de la guerra de Vietnam
•Estrés postraumático crónico
•Enseñar al público lector

“I’m always watching the door, the window, then back to the door. I get up at least five
times to walk my perimeter, sometimes it’s ten or fifteen times. There’s always something
within reach, maybe a baseball bat or a knife, at every door. I used to sleep with a gun
under my pillow, another under my mattress, and another in the drawer next to the bed.”
LA GUERRA DE VIETNAM

• Conflicto para reunificar Vietnam bajo un

gobierno comunista.
• Gobierno comunista de Vietnam del Norte
con China y la Unión Soviética VS Vietnam
del Sur con Estados Unidos.
• Guerra Fría = Capitalismo VS Comunismo

• Guerra con más bajas

THE UNDOING OF CHARACTER
Pasos:

1. El líder destruye la legitimidad de la moral de la armada

2. Injusticias y riesgo de muerte desigual.

3. Dolor por la muerte de un camarada especial

4. Biológicamente vivo, pero psicológicamente muerto porque falla la empatización del dolor.

5. El dolor intenso se convierte en ira.

THE UNDOING OF CHARACTER
“It was constant now. I was watching the other five guys like they was my
children. … It wasn’t seventy-two guys [in the company] I was worried
about. It was five guys”.

“War changes you, changes you. Strips you, strips you of all your beliefs, your
religion, takes your dignity away, you become an animal. I know the animals
don’t—the animal in the sense of being evil. You know, it’s unbelievable what
humans can do to each other”.
THE UNDOING OF CHARACTER

“Fuck it. They’re dead. No big fucking deal.

Move on.” “_____’s dead.” “Fucking _____
fucked up. He’s dead.” “He shouldn’t have
fucked up. He wouldn’t be fucking dead.”
 BERSERKER
• Estado de desconexión.

• Pérdida de la misericordia y del sentimiento de grupo.

• Búsqueda de venganza.

• Sentirse como un dios.

• Pérdida de empatía hacia el enemigo.

• Dolor y arrepentimiento después de que ese estado desaparezca.

BERSERKER
“I pulled him out into the paddy and carved him up with my knife. When I was done with him,
he looked like a rag doll that a dog had been playing with. Even then I wasn’t satisfied. I was
fighting with the corpsmen trying to take care of me. I was trying to get at him for more”.

“I really loved fucking killing, couldn’t get enough. For every one that I killed I felt better. Made
some of the hurt went away. EVERY TIME YOU LOST A FRIEND IT SEEMED LIKE A PART
OF YOU WAS GONE. Get one of them to compensate what they had done to me. I got very
hard, cold, merciless. I lost all my mercy”.
EL TRAUMA
“Daylight came [long pause], and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids. What got
us thoroughly fucking confused is, at that time you turn to the team and you say to the team,
“Don’t worry about it. Everything’s fucking fine.” Because that’s what you’re getting from
upstairs”. 

“So you know in your heart it’s wrong, but at the time, here’s your superiors telling you that it
was okay”.
 La persona ha experimentado un evento que
está fuera del rango de la experiencia
humana habitual y que sería marcadamente

PTSD angustioso para casi cualquier persona, por

ejemplo, una amenaza grave para la vida o
la integridad física; amenaza grave o daño a
los hijos, cónyuge u otros parientes cercanos
y amigos; destrucción repentina del hogar o
la comunidad de uno; o ver a otra persona
que recientemente ha sido, o está siendo,
gravemente lesionada o muere como
resultado de un accidente o violencia física.
PTSD
• Pérdida de la autoridad sobre la función mental, falta de confianza en la percepción.

• Hipervigilancia.

• Superiores quitando importancia a lo vivido.

• Eliminación y negación de las experiencias propias, por eso ya no se fiaban ni de su misma

percepción.
• Amnesia, sin poder controlar sus recuerdos.

• Supresión de la voluntad..

• Persistencia de la traición, aislamiento, suicidio.

PTSD
Hypervigilance:

Where he was working above a post office sorting hall. Family, friends, and coworkers of
Vietnam combat veterans have learned that it is most unsafe to approach these men
unannounced from behind.

“I haven’t really slept for twenty years. I lie down, but I don’t sleep. I’m always watching the
door, the window, then back to the door. I get up at least five times to walk my perimeter,
sometimes it’s ten or fifteen times. There’s always something within reach, maybe a baseball
bat or a knife, at every door.”
PTSD
Insomnia:

He begins to suffer not only from insomnia and agitation but also of numerous types of somatic
symptoms. Tension headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, skin disorders, and abdominal,
back, or neck pain are extremely common. He may complain of tremors, choking sensations,
or a rapid heartbeat.
PTSD
Alone:

“I had just come back [from Vietnam], and my first wife’s parents gave a dinner for me and my parents and
her brothers and their wives. And after dinner we were all sitting in the living room and her father said, “So,
tell us what it was like.” And I started to tell them, and I told them. And do you know within five minutes the
room was empty. They was all gone, except my wife. After that I didn’t tell anybody I had been in Vietnam”.

“ Y’know my wife’s real social, and of course I’m not. She understands now because of the couples
therapy_______ did with her and me together. So we don’t fight anymore about a lot of those things, and
she even helps me now with the embarrassment. Like at my in-laws’ she’ll even make up something she
forgot in the car when she sees that there’s getting [to be] too many people in the room, so I can get out of
there”.
CONCLUSIONES
• Guerra como experiencia traumática

• Te cambia para siempre

• Respeto y empatía por parte de los familiares

• ¿Pueden curarse del síndrome de estrés postraumático?

- Algunos síntomas podrán desaparecer, pero los hechos siempre vivirán en él.
 GRACIAS
POR
VUESTRA
ATENCIÓN