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We had several goals when inviting speakers of various disciplines to share their perspectives on war trauma and its treatments: To find a way into the experiences of today's soldiers and veterans; to reclaim our relationships to these men and women; and to reconsider what they might need of us as clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and citizens.
Through this learning, we hoped to confront the dissociation and disconnection between those attending a conference in a small town in Massachusetts and the soldiers and veterans acting on our behalves thousands of miles away. This was the frame for the 2012 Fall Conference of the Erikson Institute at the Austen Riggs Center, entitled “Untold Stories, Hidden Wounds: War Trauma and Its Treatment.” Here, in an invited collection of papers, we bring you the voices of those who presented at the conference.
Among the presenters, there was variety, not only by discipline but also in voice and in medium used to present. Here, we represent these in varying formats and tones—some more academic, others less formal. Commentary is woven into more traditional papers, and there are two interviews. All are inspired by the authors' time spent talking with soldiers, veterans, and survivors of torture. As Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD (Shay, 2014, pp. 182-191), a psychiatrist retired from a career in the Department of Veterans' Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, and author of the acclaimed Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (Shay, 1994), suggests, it is imperative to consider one's voice when writing about and speaking with veterans who have had their trust in authority shattered; you will find the straight talk he champions in several of the pieces.
You will also find interviews of two of the presenters who showed videos at the conference—one a feature film and one a training video. Filmmaker and Professor of Art at Williams College, Liza Johnson showed and, via Skype, discussed her evocative and award