Lifton, Robert Jay. (1978, Winter). Advocacy and corruption in the healing professions. Military Chaplains' Review, 15-25.
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Here the author is discussion counseling groups designed to help Vietnam Veterans.
"Guilt and rage were fundemental emotions explored in the groups. But the men had a special anger toward two types of professionals, chaplains and "shrinks." They talked about chaplains with great anger and resentment as having blessed the troops, their mission, their guns, and their killing. Catholic veterans spoke of confessing meaningless transgressions while never being held accountable for the ultimate one (killing.) (p. 19)It's sort of like trying to hide something from children and not giving them credit for being aware when something is amiss, say between their parents, for example. So then it's better to just be open and up front about it than risk loosing their faith in you altogether. So these veterans - grown adults - all the more could tell when something wasn't quite right, and they resented (or something stronger even than resent) the mockery of a treatment that they received.
And they knew what I've been saying all along that church and state should be separate and that things get all muddled up on both sides (church on side, state on the other, once you start mixing things up too much. And these people, the vets, knew that chaplains - religious workers of all stripes, really - are supposed to first and foremost represent God and there shouldn't be any other intermediator mixing things up or getting in the way. Out of the mouths of babes. That's what it is. These people seem to know more than does the thurch leadership about Biblical testimony and ministry.
But the thing is that, yeah, this may have really happened in the U.S. mililtary, but the Vienna mission? What does this have to do with the mission? Well, I think it applies to me and how I think about the Vienna mission. So, for example, the vets thought the chaplains should have been separate and should have (they thought) been provided at least room for a separate voice in the military. So in my case, there was no one in Vienna I could talk to, because they were all in bed together. So I couldn't really trust anyone to share my concerns with, and that includes on staff. In other words (and I've said as much before), there was no provision for grievance procedures and individuals to talk to about complaints. Plus the kinds of complaints I had were so basic to the mission, I think, that to complain about them would be to basically question whether I belonged there or not. And it was not as if they were going to take anything particular seriously from me, as if I had a brilliant stroke of insight into Scripture that they had missed (assuming, of course, that Scripture was their guiding light in all of this). And this is especially true since I was "only" a secretary. You know, not a theologian and not properly credentialed and all.
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But in their resentment toward chaplains and psychiatrists the men were saying something more. It was sone thing to be ordered into a situation they came to perceive as absurd and evil, but it was quite another to have that process rationalized and justified by authorities of the spirit and mind. Chaplains and psychiatrists formed an unholy alliance not only with the command but also with the more corruptible elements in the psyche.The Vienna mission had its "counterfeit universe" too. But the situation was turned around from what the vets had. Instead, the missionaries came willingly, of their own accord, but were not forewarned (as far as I ever knew) about this counterfeit universe or at least the extent of it or the nature of it and once in Vienna the new staff member was forced into it. So in this case the unholy alliance actually created the counterfeit universe and then carried it across the border to do the work. To do the work, evidently, they brought in the likes of the U.S. reserve chaplains/H.R. staff to do the job, and I guess they were happy with the job they did, because they kept them on staff. So the chaplains had the skills that were needed to get the job done in Vienna, maybe from such things as what is discussed in this article - "Chaplains... formed and unholy alliance not only with the command by also with the more corruptible elements in the psyche."
We can thus speak of a "counterfeit universe" in which perfasive, spiritually reinforced inner corruption becomes the price of survival. (p. 29)
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Three well-known principles of military psychiatry developed during recent wars are immediacy (a soldier is treated as soon as possible), proximity (close to the combat area), and expectancy (everyone under treatment is made to expect to return to duty)...So of course, it goes without saying that the mission did not use the "well-known principles of military psychiatry" as guidelines in their treatment of me, because they sent me thousands of miles away across "the puddle" (as the British call it, anyway). Of course, this has nice psychological affect, too, making one unsure as to whether the promised return to serve is as certain as they indicate it might be. Somehow, in such cases actions speak louder than words and a big question mark appeared in my mind and my brilliant career seemed to be going up in smoke.
The approach seems convincing until one evaluates some of the conditions under which atrocities occurred or were avoided... One must distinguish between group integration and personal integrity, the latter including moral and psychological elements that connect one to social and historical context beyond the immediate. Group integration can readily undermine integrity for both the soldier and the psychritist. (p. 22)
So then the question was, which was worse, the missions who had not responded to my questionnaire (when I was trying to select a mission to go with), the ones who had responded as if I were a potential spy or something - and did not mince their words, therefore came across rather unChristian, or these missions - the conglomerate of them in the Vienna mission and my sending mission that seemed to stand nonchallantly by, or worse - be in cahoots?
But then the other thing was from the mission leadership's position, the last sentence would have been an issue the whole time I was at Vienna and regarding anyone's tenure, I think. For example, another secretary had a rough time of it (although absolutely nothing like what I experienced, so don't even think that), and they would have thought of containment of wrong attitudes and things like that, so there would have been ways to do that - minimize potential damage and spread while a person was still being socialized, and others around the person generally had a basic idea what the person was going through.
Of course, then, they absolutely, had to deal with this with me, because I was a worse case. And since we're talking about psychiatry, it's spot on. So how are they going to do this "group integration" which could potentially "readily undermine integrity for both the soldier and the psychiatrist." Well, first of all, the psychiatrist here is the chaplain/H.R. director back in Vienna.
So I'm in the States and they very conveniently for them sent me to the same city where the U.S. office is - well, in this sense, I guess you could say that maybe it was "Proximity" to one of the offices. So they got to see how I "integrated" there with the staff. And I did okay so they let me back to my old job in Vienna. And I "integrated" back there okay too. So they psychiatrist (aka chaplain/H.R. director) could breath easily... well for a while.
Well, the thing was, that I supposily had super high levels of stress and culture shock (which I never ever have agreed with) and all these things, and I did just great when I came back and I integrated... but something still wasn't right. Why? Because I learned how to hide my true values, and how much stress I could take to hold them inside. I had this super delecate ecosystem going that was my true conscience and what I actually believed and thought, including of the mission, Eastern Europe and the mission field. I knew that it could tip very easily and crack and I'd be ruined, so I had to have a certain amount of elasticity built in where I was willing to give in in some areas. So if I thought the pressure was getting to be a little too much I'd give in in an area I thought maybe among the lesser evils, like attending the English speaking church. I really hated to leave the Austrian church and it really went against my grain and was a super big extra shot in my self esteem, but I had to do it or I'd break. I didn't see any other way. So that's the kind of calculating I did.
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We have no follow-up studies on psychiatrists and their spiritual-psychological state after service in Vietnam. I have talked to a number of them, and my impression is that they find it no easier to come to terms with their immersion in the counterfeit universe than does the average GI. They too feel compromised.I think it would be too much to hope that the Vienna mission H.R. staff (US reserve chaplains) would feel anything like this in relation to me or anyone else they might have had the misfortune to "orient" to the mission. The thing is that they were so embedded into the mission and the mission was so (or seemed to be to be) so attuned to them that they were like one and the same, or at least meant for each other. I could hardly imagine any kind of conscience bothering them for how they treated me, for example. It was just how they operated - their modus operandi. They really could have done no other. If they treated me worse than they treated anyone else it could only have been attributed to either my dad and his work at Boein in SDI or else my obstinance because of my convictions because of my particular background in Eastern European ministry, or perhaps a combination of the two. But the fact remains that they had it in them in any case to treat me the way they did.
Put simple, American culture has so technicized the idea of psychiatric illness and cure that the psychiatrist or psychoanylist is thrust into a stance of scientifically based spiritual omniscience - a stance he is likely to find much too seductive to refuse entirely. Annointed with both omniscience and objectivity and working within a market economy, his allegedly neutral talents become available to the highest bidder. In a militarized society they are equally available to the war makers. (p. 24)
