Moral Injury and the Humanities

Andrew I. Cohen, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics at Georgia State University. He is the author of Philosophy, Ethics, and Public Policy (Routledge, 2015) and Apologies and Moral Repair: Rights, Duties and Corrective Justice (Routledge, 2020). He has edited or co-edited books on applied ethics and public policy. His current research focuses on the requirements of corrective justice. Cohen currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. With Jennifer A. Samp and Kathryn McClymond, Cohen investigated moral injury through a study funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kathryn McClymond, Ph.D., is Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Oglethorpe University. Prior to that, McClymond was a Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University where she served as Department Chair and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. McClymond is a comparative scholar of religions, with a particular interest in religion, ritual, and violence. McClymond’s most recent book, Ritual Gone Wrong: What We Learn from Ritual Disruption (2016), examines a range of case studies of ritual gone wrong, exploring what we learn about the nature of ritual itself by studying ritual mistakes, sabotage, misappropriation, and failure. Her first book, Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice (Georgia Author of the Year Award 2009), argued against prevailing conceptions of sacrifice as a violent, destructive activity.

Introduction Andrew I. Cohen and Kathryn McClymondSection 1: Some Frameworks for Moral Injury 1. The Moral Challenges of Moral Injury Johannes Lang and Robin May Schott 2. Ulterior Motives and Moral Injury in War Saba Bazargan-Forward 3. Theorizing Moral Injury with Reports of Trauma Andrew I. Cohen and Jennifer A. Samp 4. The Ethics of Moral Injury David Rodin 5. Moral Injury and the Making of Amends Linda RadzikSection 2: Experiences of Moral Injury 6. Greek Tragedy, Virgil’s Aeneid, and The Moral Injury of Combat Veterans and Health-Care Workers Henry Bayerle 7. Moral Injury in Law Enforcement John Kleinig 8. Photojournalism and Moral Injury: An Inquiry Lauren Walsh 9. The Moral Limits to Moral Testimony in Soldiering Kevin Cutright 10. Meaning-Making and Moral Injury: The Role of the Narrative in Understanding Trauma Joshua MantzSection 3: Accounts of Recovery: Applying Humanistic Approaches to Moral Injury 11. Evil in Innocence: Moral Injury and the Encounter with Children Alan Roof 12. On the Necessity of Ritual for Moral Injury Recovery Rita Nakashima Brock 13. Animist Forms of Atonement and Healing in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew BreakerJay Rajiva 14. Rituals and Moral Injury: How Veterans Make Peace Kathryn McClymond Conclusion Andrew I. Cohen and Kathryn McClymond