Resilience

Reading Lists

2023 Emotional Wellness Month Reading List

In the demanding world of military service, where challenges often test the limits of both physical and mental endurance, emotional wellness stands as a pillar of strength and resilience. Emotional wellness is the capacity to effectively navigate life’s stresses, adapt to change, and confront the most trying of circumstances.

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Military Book Reviews

The Iliad

When the Greek poet Homer penned The Iliad nearly three thousand years ago, he explored trauma and resiliency through the lens of his civilization at war. Set in the tempest of combat, The Iliad’s deeper story about the human condition is found in the contrast between two opposing generals, Achilles and Hector. Surrounded by death and violence, Homer’s two heroes engage the world with strikingly different approaches. Through their contrasting values and motivations, Homer makes strong assertions about the sources of psychological resilience.  

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Military Book Reviews

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

On the cusp of resiliency sits its darker counterbalance, mental health. It afflicts service members across a multitude of diagnostics, with one of the most common being Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is where Sebastian Junger delves into a radically different approach with his book, Tribe, by assessing the fellowship and purpose of individuals within a deploying unit experience. Comparatively, there is a recorded loneliness and depression those same individuals feel when returning home, particularly when seeking to reintegrate into society. In exploring human psychology, Junger presents a phenomenon of unity and intent when people collectively engage in a cause.

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