Wednesday, May 3, 2017

"The Iliad?" "The Odyssey?" Counseling?

After listening to the Psychiatrist Counsels Vets With Odyssey Audio, what are you thinking about the The Odyssey?  Please specify your thoughts using a dynamic topic sentence and supporting evidence.  This blog response is due by 2:30p.m. on Thursday, May 4th.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that The Odyssey is between what is real and what is not real. The Gods from ancient Greek Mythology look over the morals that lived on earth and helped them when they needed it. In this world today, people have many religions rather than just one.

Anonymous said...

In using other people’s experiences from thousands of years ago it helps soldiers feel like they are not alone. The pain and loneliness are unfathomable to those who haven’t been in this same type of pain and danger. Homer packages war, and feeds it to civilians and nobles and kings and queens, so they could try to understand the horrors of war. This allows vulnerability within veterans.

Anonymous said...

The Odyssey helped with the stress that the soldiers deal with while in war. The Odyssey I think help's the soldiers realize what its like to be a solider and what it is like to be brave. The Odyssey is just a book of poems that people to use to guide themselves and try to use it as an example they should use to live their life. He even says that the man reading Achilles helped him get through the war as it was interesting and different and really was good at keeping his mind off the war.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to me that this man was able to give these veterans a sense of reliability. Even though it is the text that keeps his clients with him and healing from "psychological injury", it surprises me that he is able to attract so many generally conservative veterans. The second audio clip is interesting to me because it tells us how greek mythology is applicable through the generations. No matter what the experience had by the individual we as humans all have the same abilities to have the same feelings.

Anonymous said...

The Odyssey and The Iliad serve not only as a literary classic, but it can also serve as a way to de-stress and even a way to cope with extreme situations that people are forced into. The audio we listened to shows how a psychologist used both texts to help soldiers coming back from war to calm them in a way, and assist them in returning back to the world they left behind. Also a possible way to express how the war changes men, especially when they can't even express what happened to them and how they felt after all they had done to survive.

Anonymous said...

This audio makes me think of how human these heroes really are. In a lot of the stories we have read, the heroes seem like people who are very strong and who are above the regular people on Earth. However, if these vets today are able to relate to the Odyssey on this deeply emotional level, it shows that the heroes are more human, more vulnerable, than I had thought before listening to the audio.

Anonymous said...

What I am thinking about The Odyssey is it seems like it can relate to modern day experiences through the pain they went through and the mental and physical injuries they experienced. Doesn't seem outrageous. The Odyssey shows the realism in the stories through how Homer shows Odysseus struggling with questions. The Odyssey appears to be literature that can and will be continued to be relatable to some extent. Brings a more real and serious approach with Odysseus and how the author describes him.

Anonymous said...

The ways that The Odyssey aided veterans with recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is something that I have never thought of before. The veteran conveys that reading The Odyssey while recovering convinced him that "they are not personally deficit for being in war". It aloud him to see a similar situation that he was in and see the outcome. He saw that Odysseus was okay in the ending which helped the veteran to overcome some of the darker thoughts that he was thinking from Vietnam. All in all, I now see the Odyssey as more than just an epic, but something is able to reach out and help people even past the time it was written.

Anonymous said...

After listening to the Psychiatrist Counsels Vets With Odyssey Audio, I gained a new perspective on the way stories can affect people’s lives. By telling the story of the Odyssey to Vietnam veterans, the Psychiatrist is able to show shared difficulties similar to the ones they went through. It allows them to embrace their struggles and push through them by using Odysseus as a role model for their personal battle. It also is a more fun, less demeaning way to loosen up the vets and make them feel more comfortable within the psychiatric setting. Odysseus tells his story to the civilians around him, and this comparison helps vets to open up and try to tell others about what they have gone through in order to release some of the burdens of their thoughts. Overall, using the Illiad and the Odyssey in Psychiatry seems to be an effective method to teach Vietnam Veterans new morals and goals through a relatable, interesting story.

Anonymous said...

The Odyssey, a sincerely beautiful story shows how Odysseus is disconnected with the people that he should be close to, his desire for relationships is strong but it seems as if there is no one who can relate with him. They are using these stories to help them feel reliability so that they can feel like someone understands them and that gives them some amount of peace and relief.

Anonymous said...

the veterans have something to relate to, which also has a good ending. the veterans feel like maybe they can share their stories and experiences more easily if since they know people might listen. The Odyssey gives them something to relate to and that's why i think they like listening to it so much. listening to how a hero reacts in certain situations, they can feel that and maybe it reminds them of the good things they did during the war, so they're not just remembering the bad times.

Anonymous said...

I think that The Odyssey can help to comfort the soldiers so they feel like they can relate to this story. The Odyssey helps convey a message of vulnerability and pain, which can help the soldiers in a time when they are feeling the same thing.

Anonymous said...

I believe that The Odyssey gave these men encouragement and guidance on how to deal with war and trauma like a hero. It was likely comforting to them to hear a story about battle, because they could relate it to their life. It was also something that captivated them, and kept their minds off their own lives.

Anonymous said...

After hearing the thoughts of the psychiatrist, I found it quite interesting how he used history to solve real world issues with military trust and distrust as seen in the Vietnam war. It really opened my eyes to how important trust is to defense and the Psychiatrist really shed light on that. He talks about the honor war and how things should be great once Veterans return home. Though that is not always the case due to PTSD, The Odyssey give hope that such greatness can be reached without the issues of PTSD.

Anonymous said...

I find this incredible story fascinating, it's a new way to keep the Odyssey relevant. It shocked me that the Odyssey is still teaching people how how can hurt you psycologicaly, and hearing a happyish ending to a sad, war story. Eventhough the Odyssey is sad and disparaging, the true raw nature of it makes people that have gone through tramatic events feel as they are not alone, in history and the world.

Anonymous said...

This is making me think that the Odyssey can relate to aspects of war. It can help people heel or recover. It makes me think that Odysseus probably had to heel or recover like the veterans. This makes me think of the different section of the Odyssey and the journeys in it can relate to journeys in life and war. The podcast also makes me think of how Greek myths can help veterans heel because it shows the things the heroes have to overcome and shows they can do it. Overall this podcast makes me think a lot about The Odyssey.

Unknown said...

i see and hear how the veterans are just normal people who have gone through traumatic situations. I could see how some veterans aren't vulnerable to others, or really want to talk about their lives before or during deployment.

Unknown said...

TJ Avery
This audio story is very interesting, I feel like I know a lot about war and the things people have to go through in the field of battle. War does not build character, it reviles character. The story the Psychiatrist gave to the soldiers makes us see the ancient legendary hero were human like us and they also have our emotions, they felt the grief of their comrades deaths.

Anonymous said...

when it comes to the idea of this counselor who works with combat vets and the Odyssey, it speaks to the any soldier who had to face horrors of war. Because as it's known "war. war never changes" (yes, I did quote fallout.) Since no matter what you look at war there's things that only people who were in it and lived through it. The Odyssey is a story of war and the aftermath of one man, who struggle so similar to every victim of war on both sides. It's the same reasons that vets join together in the days after and why they find each other the best of company. Because they've all had that one sergeant who was the roughest or the one who was their favorite. They all know they saw their best friend die or found out that he did die in combat. It's a connection they only had when around each other. To hear that trouble has haunted others and people before them humanizes them where war and training has dehumanized them. The world we live in we don't see them as human we see them as hero or monster. Unless you are one their things that they can only know. Even if you were raised by one or lived with one you can only get a small area of knowledge from them, never the full experience. which is why the Odyssey can resonate with vets today because it covers all the emotions that a soldiers who gets come home.

Anonymous said...

After listening to the video it made me think how Odysseus went through all these challenges such as the cyclops, to return home without any mental trauma that affects his actions. Veterans have had traumatizing experiences, but when they come back to the life they left it’s harder to blend into a calmer society. To other they are seen as heros who saved their country. During the war The Odysseus helped the soldiers stress during hard times Odysseus overcame the challenges he faced.

Anonymous said...

I think the odyssey shows a lot about how a strong group of people should be, they need to know eachother and like eachother, as well as know how they work together and fight. Teamwork is all about communication and if they don't then what's the point of having a squad. In the Iliad the mother of Achilles dipped his heel into the river giving him a weakness. I think this text and the psychiatrist is saying that everyone has their weaknesses.

Anonymous said...

I think that reading a story about people that went through a similar situation that the soldiers are going through must help and give them the motivation to continue that experience. It is great that the Odyssey is giving them a way to keep their minds out of reality, and at the same time it is helping them to deal with their own war that they have inside their minds by keeping them motivated and confident for when they have to go back.

Anonymous said...

I found it unlikely that the gruesome events that occurred during the Trojan war could have any positive affect today, or bring any positive affect at all. However, the Odyssey and Illiad bring comfort to soldiers today. These two epics are popular examples of greek mythology that can be seen in western life. It can be therapeutic for soldiers to read about something that happened to real people, and being able to relate. Although the events occurred a long time ago, characters like Hector are easy for soldiers to relate to and sympathize with. Soldiers can relate to him because he cares greatly about priotizing his family despite the war. Reading these poems can provide an escape from reality while also learning to accept the cruelty of war.