News Psychologists Propose Horrifying Solution To Ptsd In Drone Operators

[MyPTSD]

Drone operators often kill their targets from a continent away, but studies suggest that even thousands of miles of distance cannot mitigate war's devastating psychological effects. But just wait until you hear how researchers propose preventing PTSD, alcohol abuse and thoughts of suicide in drone operators.

The latest issue of GQ features a stunning read, written by Michael Powers, about former Air Force drone sensor operator Brandon Bryant and his time in the U.S. Military. One of the first pilots to speak out about his experience with the drone program, Bryant paints a frightening portrait of death-dealing from a distance, and the psychological trauma wrought by his nearly six-years of service as a drone operator.

It's a captivating read – one definitely worth reading in its entirety – but we were particularly struck by the section exploring Bryant's PTSD diagnosis, which he received just a few months after his heavy concscience led him to leave the Air Force:

It was an unexpected diagnosis. For decades the model for understanding PTSD has been "fear conditioning": quite literally the lasting psychological ramifications of mortal terror. But a term now gaining wider acceptance is "moral injury." It represents a tectonic realignment, a shift from a focusing on the violence that has been done to a person in wartime toward his feelings about what he has done to others — or what he's failed to do for them. The concept is attributed to the clinical psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who in his book Achilles in Vietnam traces the idea back as far as the Trojan War. The mechanisms of death may change — as intimate as a bayonet or as removed as a Hellfire [an air-to-ground missile common aboard Predator drones]—but the bloody facts, and their weight on the human conscience, remain the same. Bryant's diagnosis of PTSD fits neatly into this new understanding. It certainly made sense to Bryant. "I really have no fear," he says now. "It's more like I've had a soul-crushing experience. An experience that I thought I'd never have. I was never prepared to take a life."

The solution: "Siri, have those people killed."

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[anthony]

I wonder if this is to protect the soldiers flying drones, or to save themselves money when the person still gets PTSD after giving the order to kill 1600 odd people via Siri? Diagnostically, you can't be diagnosed with PTSD for giving orders to kill.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I don't think Siri gives the "distance" that they think it will. In the back of their minds they will still know they gave the command to kill.

 

[eav]

PTSD as an "existential conflict." That sounds about right to me.

 

[Abstract]

I have to say that the so called "horrifying" solution was a lot of drama about nothing. I don't see it as horrifying.. I think it is a fairly sensible idea although I too wonder how much protection dear old Siri will give.

 

[ClairBear226]

But a term now gaining wider acceptance is "moral injury." It represents a tectonic realignment, a shift from a focusing on the violence that has been done to a person in wartime toward his feelings about what he has done to others — or what he's failed to do for them.

This is what grabbed me. It makes me wonder if guilt, or the violation of our own moral code is a factor in the development of PTSD. My trauma is not combat related - mine is related to sexual assault. But guilt is, in fact, an enormous issue that I've wrestled with. In a different way, I very much violated my own moral code. Things that make you go Hmmmmm....

I do wonder if Siri would actually matter much. The detachment of being so far away didn't help. The detachment of using a drone didn't help. The detachment of someone else pulling the actual trigger didn't help. Why would it be different, employing another form of detachment? As long as we're human, and as long as we value life, wouldn't it still be a problem? And how detached do we want to get, exactly? Anybody that saw Battlestar Gallactica would warn against allowing machines to do too much of the work.

Diagnostically, you can't be diagnosed with PTSD for giving orders to kill.

Yup. If they aren't diagnosed, the VA doesn't have to pay for it.