Quote Originally Posted by AmericanPride View Post
Do you think American society in general lacks any of those "outs", whether for those who are not "keen on combat", or for those who have mental injuries because of combat?
I'd second Tom's suggestion of looking at Rwanda and the Congo. There is also some very good material from South Africa.

Part of the problem with all of this is that the definition of PTSD is too fluffy - it's based on a phenotypic definition rather than on a neurological one. From my (rather limited) reading of the literature, PTSD appears to refer to a neurological process that bypasses the neo-cortex and stores memories, or associations, directly in the hipocampus of the brain (or, at least, with a strong connection to that area).

Let me tell you a story (Anthropologists are ALWAYS telling stories ). In a certain tribe living nowadays in South Africa and Tanzania, the manhood ritual involved circumcision - usually with a rather dull iron knife at the age of 12 or so. This was followed with a requirement hat the "candidate" stand immersed in a cold stream for about an hour or so. No, to my mind, having parts of your anatomy slowly sawed off and then being put into cold water for an hour or so will, in all probability, induce a major system shock. Someone who had a genetic predisposition to PTSD, i.e. a likelihood of pain bypassing their neo-cortex, would probably die as a result of this ritual. So, in his culture, PTSD would not be as prevalent as in other cultures that don't select against it.

Marc