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Purple Heartby By Patricia Mccormick: An Analysis

Decent Essays

The novel “Purple Heartby Patricia McCormick takes on a serious subject, and entertains the reader as well. The novel creates a scenario in which a young man, whose name is Matt Duffy, gets traumatic brain injury from an rpg hitting the wall next to him. One is also able to infer the fact that Matt has post traumatic stress disorder, from the fact that the memory of the death of a child named Ali haunts him. Just as well, the text states “You may notice that many of the symptoms that follow a TBI overlap with the common reactions after trauma. Because TBI is caused by trauma and there is symptom overlap, it can be hard to tell what the underlying problem is. In addition, many people who get a TBI also develop PTSD.” The text states that traumatic brain injury and PTSD not only have similar characteristics, but most people that get TBI also get PTSD! Just as well, the text states “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) often coexist because brain injuries are often sustained in traumatic experiences.” This repeats the previous text, in saying that both coexist. …show more content…

military physicians document the stresses of Civil War soldiers
1905: ‘Battle shock’ is regarded as a legitimate medical condition by the Russian Army
1917-1919: Distress of soldiers is attributed to ‘shell shock’ during WWI
1953: Harold Wolff proposes a holistic model of stress based on an evolutionary model
1965: Each military battalion is provided with officers trained to treat psychological problems during the Vietnam war
1969: Pettera, Johnson, and Zimmer conceptualize ‘Vietnam combat reaction’
1972: Chaim Shatan raises awareness of ‘post-Vietnam syndrome’ in the New York Times
1980: ‘Posttraumatic stress disorder’ is added to DSM-III
1987: DSM-III-R drops requirement that stressors be outside the range of normal human

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