ABSTRACT
This chapter engages both psychoanalytic and Christian patristic ideas to facilitate prevention and healing of moral injury. In addition to spiritual and therapeutic dimensions, practical concerns are also addressed: veterans suffering from moral injury need to access mental health services.
Moral injury is viewed as the impact of committing or suffering an assault upon or from another human being, in terms of conscience, moral standards, spirituality, religious beliefs, and religious emotions. This problem is crucial for both victims and perpetrators, as traumatic events harm their cognitive, affective, and volitional aspects of mental life.
Drawing on Donald Winnicott’s theories, I try to develop an understanding of psychological death as a secular affirmation of ontological death. In this way, forgiveness emerges out of the theological notion of communion.
