salon letter musing

[quietann]

I realized yesterday that I hadn't really made the point I wanted to, in the letter about soldiers and PTSD. Which is that my father-in-law could go out today and do his field research with Iraq war veterans instead of Vietnam veterans, and write *exactly the same book*, even though a lot more is known about PTSD now, there are better treatments, and it is recognized as a real mental disorder. Scary.

(Ben actually may try to get him to talk to Houghton-Mifflin about republishing the book. Or he could even do a new edition, given that he's going to be living in Vermont, which has a lot of Reservists sent to Iraq...)