Moral Dilemmas: A Phenomenological Exploration of Military Members Experience of War

Due to increasing mental health concerns in combat exposed military members, including posttraumatic stress, there is a commiserate need for improved mental health services. Other mental health concerns include an increasing rate of suicide deaths in military members who have served during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). There is a need for mental health counselors to have a more nuanced understanding of the clinical needs of combat exposed military members. In more recent years the construct of moral injury has emerged as a potential explanation for the presentation of certain combat exposed military members. Moral injury can be thought of as the social, spiritual, psychological, emotional, and existential wound that can occur in the aftermath of either doing or witnessing acts that are contrary to the individual’s moral belief system. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain an understanding of how moral injury might better explain the clinical presentation of certain traumatized military members. This study seeks to add to a growing body of knowledge surrounding the construct of moral injury as it pertains to certain combat exposed military members presenting with trauma symptoms. Participants will have deployed to a combat zone during either the Gulf War or OEF / OIF and will have held a job within the military (military occupational specialty; MOS) commonly associated with combat exposure (e.g. reconnaissance).