PTSD and Folk Therapy: Everyday Practices of American Masculinity in the Combat Zone by John Paul Wallis and Jay Mechling (review)

This book is a valuable addition to the scholarship on military folklore as the latest in a series called "Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities," edited by Simon J. Bronner and Elo-Hanna Seljamaa. The book is a fascinating collaboration between two authors, Jay Mechling and John Paul Wallis. Jay Mechling taught a course on "War in American Memory" at the University of California (UC), Davis for many years. He became knowledgeable about the scholarship of American warfare including history, fiction, memoirs, and reportage. John Paul Wallis wrote his senior honors thesis under Mechling's mentorship in American Studies at UC Davis about his experiences as a US Marine in Iraq. Both became fascinated with short-term solutions to the psychological and physical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That mutual interest resulted in this book. The book is highly interdisciplinary, using approaches from history, folklore, anthropology, sociology, psychology, gender studies, visual studies, and more. The style is readable and straightforward. Chapter by chapter, the authors focus on their arguments without getting bogged down in academic jargon.

Chapter 1 begins with an American way of socializing boys and young men. The authors candidly report on their experiences as boys, growing up playing with toy soldiers and toy guns. They expand the discussion by exploring male friendship groups that trade colorful insults, jokes, and engage in practical jokes, pranks, and playfighting. These activities require that close friends trust one another. The bottom line is that American boys are expected to be daring, brave, high-energy, and violent. There is plenty of evidence from popular culture to support this argument, from the World War II films of John Wayne to today's video games. The authors explain why young men may be enticed to enlist in the military, why they may enjoy the sense of power they have in the combat zone, and why they may have so much trouble readjusting to civilian life, including suffering from PTSD.

In chapter 2, the authors provide a brief history of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of the more than 2.7 million veterans who have returned, nearly 20 percent have some level of PTSD. The authors discuss various formal therapeutic techniques to alleviate the problem, such as prolonged exposure therapy (PET), cognitive behavior therapy, and pharmacological and psychoanalytic approaches. Unfortunately, many people living with PTSD instead turn to alcoholism, drug addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and risk-taking behaviors. In subsequent chapters, the authors present informal folklore genres that seem to help soldiers and Marines cope with PTSD. These activities and genres include having animal companions, rough-and-tumble playfighting, video gaming, masturbation, and deep play.

Chapter 3 begins with an inventory of folk traditions as "folk therapy" by looking at the use of animals, especially service dogs, to treat PTSD. Keeping pets serves to calm and de-stress warriors who suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, and emotional withdrawal. However, there is a downside; current government regulations prohibit pets in combat zones, and there is no legal method for bringing animals home. When soldiers are scheduled to return home, they can either release or destroy the animal. There has been some talk about changing regulations, but there has been little progress.

Chapter 4 examines rough-and-tumble (R&T) playfighting in combat zones. This practice is well-documented in memoirs, journalistic reports, and souvenir photographs. It is sometimes characterized as "blowing off steam." The authors write: "Playfighting both is and is not sex" (p. 74). They later explain that play-fighting looks and feels like sex, but it is neither sex nor real fighting. It is really about power, domination, and male bonding. Then, play-fighting is "a sort of immediate or short-term therapy" (p. 85).

Chapter 5 explores playing video games. Soldiers...