Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay - 1994

3rd printing. No marks or writing in text. Top text block edge has a few minor speck marks. Dust jacket and book edges have minor wear. Dust jacket has tanning at edges, mild foxing visible on reverse. Tight binding, clean bright pages. "For many years, Dr. Shay has been the psychiatrist for a group of Vietnam veterans. In that time, he has come to see an overwhelming and undeniable similarity between their experiences and those of the soldiers in Homer's Iliad; after all, this centuries-old epic is about soldiers in war and its disastrous consequences for their character. More specifically, the elements of Achilles' story - the betrayal by his commander, the shrinking of his moral and social world to a small group of friends, the death of one or more of these comrades, the accompanying feelings of grief, guilt, and numbness followed by a 'berserk' rage - are heard over and over in the stories of these men who were once soldiers and are still caught up in that old struggle."