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Laura Cyckowski's picture

mental stress training military program

Submitted by Laura Cyckowski on Tue, 08/18/2009 - 8:48am.

NYT Aug 18 2009, Mental Stress Training Is Planned for U.S. Soliders

This military training program is aimed at "heading off", among other things, PTSD. Yet, if there's evidence that in some, if not many, cases PTSD is a manifestation of closed head brain injury, you can't "head off" PTSD... yes, someone can be "trained" to manage it, but the idea that you can prevent it with mental stress training is silly.

While I like the ideas of Beck and Ellis that it can be useful to examine one's thoughts and emotions, that doesn't mean that one should deny them. I think the program gets that wrong by attempting to give soliders "intensive training in emotional resiliency".

Still, even if "mental toughness [could] be taught in the classroom", would we want to conceptualize it as "toughness"? I don't think so.

 

 

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