How we relate to war and those who fight in war is an inescapable ethical issue of

our time. From a Jungian perspective that asserts that “everything belongs,” and

archetypal psychology’s recognition that neglected soul is found at the edges in the

bizarre, terrifying, chaotic, twisted, immoral, painful and dark, this presentation

explores making the persistent personal and collective phenomena of war more

conscious through a valuing and hearing of the war veteran’s experiences and stories.

“You can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to

obscenity and evil . . . . Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty,” writes

Vietnam War veteran and National Book Award Winner Tim O’Brien. In America thousands of veterans are coming home and no one wants to hear their dirty talk. Returning warriors are expected to demilitarize, cease being warriors, and quickly integrate back into society. Their war experiences are not valued and reduced to the etiology of mental illness. Their psychic war wounds are seen as a stress and anxiety disorder of the individual warrior needing an individual fix. Their stories are pushed into the shadows and silenced. Meanwhile, the wars go on, the casualties mount, increasing numbers of veterans are labeled mentally ill, the responsibility for war is projected on the other, and civilians largely remain unconscious about the seeds of war within themselves.

 

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn describes war veterans as “the light at the tip of the candle” and suggests we listen to them; their war stories contain a wisdom we need. They are a light because they know the way down. Without theory or lingo war veterans are familiar with the depths and have experienced psyche stripped of ego. They know about the other, holding opposites, about being shattered, betrayed and trafficking in death. They have seen the best and worst in humanity. Their dirty stories, if heard fully, are terrifyingly beautiful images of psyche’s depth and complexity.

Jung suggested we “would be much better if we had a temple for the god of war” and offered sacrifices. Recent efforts to bring together war veterans with civilian community witnesses are beginning to suggest a vision for a metaphorical temple to the god of war. The plans for this temple are being drawn as veterans cry out and civilians experience war not just a conflict in a distant land or a trauma to the warrior but as an inescapable part of psyche. Temple columns will rise as reciprocal relationships between war veterans and civilians develop in which war veterans are revered, their soul wounds are communally tended, and their experiences treasured. The main sacrifice of this temple will be one of listening closely and repeatedly to the dirty stories of war veterans, not with the goal of peace (she has her own temple), but as a conscious descent into the awe-inspiring mysteries of psyche and a welcoming of all that we are.

Bringing War Out of the Shadow: Listening to

Veterans Talk Dirty

John Becknell