Date of Award

6-15-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Joint Ph.D. Program in Study of Religion

First Advisor

Carrie Doehring

Second Advisor

Claude d'Estree

Third Advisor

Katy Barrs

Keywords

Military ethics, Military moral injury, Moral dissonance, Pastoral counseling, Traumatic stress, Warfighting

Abstract

This dissertation uses case studies to critically examine the Three Mirror Model (TMM) as a framework for understanding the formation and healing of Military Moral Injury (MMI). I adapt the work of Stephen Brookfield and Neal Krause to evaluate using the TMM as a methodology for dealing with the complex issues of MMI within a military deployment cycle (training, warfighting, and healing) (Brookfield 2012, 2017; Krause 2022). Specifically, I use theorists, researchers, healers, and warfighters as key stakeholders to identify and critically examine the intersections of disciplines and the subsets of models where warfighters’ moral orientations and moral agency form and reconcile the moral dissonance that results in MMI.

A warfighter’s moral orienting system is a composite of core values used to “guide individual[s] along preferred pathways to significant destinations” (Pargament and Exline 2022, 29-30, 243-ff). These destinations include the moral agency that individuals use to: 1) regulate their cognitions and reactions, and 2) process their emotions and life narratives.

Within the military ethos, moral orienting systems are driven by warrior codes that define the moral standards that direct warfighters’ identity and ethical agency. Therefore, the content and processes of warfighters’ moral orientations need to be considered when defining and treating MMI. During military training, warfighters integrate military values and professional competencies into the moral orienting systems that drive the moral agency they perform during combat. Specific events in warfighting can dis-integrate relationships between moral orientation and moral agency, causing levels of moral dissonance (Litz et al. 2009; Shay 2014; Maguen et al. 2011; Tick 2005).

Moral dissonance can be examined as struggles that 1) disorient the nature of individuals’ moral orienting systems, 2) disrupt their formations of life purpose and meaning, and 3) result in a spectrum of maladaptive behaviors (Pargament and Exline 2022, 32-34). Following combat, warfighters need to reconcile their moral dissonance. Their inability to do this results in MMI. Multiple treatment modalities and programs support warfighters’ reconciliation of moral dissonance through the creation of adaptive post-traumatic meanings (Park et al. 2017). The TMM is a framework that explains this process. It provides a multi-discipline, research-based approach for understanding, mitigating, and healing moral dissonance from warfighting.

Copyright Date

6-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jeffrey L. Zust

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

590 pgs

File Size

5.1 MB

Download



Share

COinS