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Boston Globe
September 25, 2007 Work made him MacArthur fellow
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Correspondent
When Boston psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wanted to understand the psychological toll of the Vietnam War on the veterans he treated, he turned to the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
The classical Greek epics perfectly encapsulate the mental damage of combat, said Shay, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston.
He wrote two books that draw on the similarities between the Vietnam-era trauma of his patients and the stress of combat that Homer portrayed in poems that may be as old as 2,800 years.
Today, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will announce that Shay, 65, has been selected as a 2007 MacArthur fellow "for his work in using literary parallels from Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' to treat combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans."
"His work is important for delivering healthcare to all those who put their lives on the line in the service of our country," said Mark D. Fitzsimmons, associate director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. "It's fair to describe it as pertinent."
Shay is one of 24 people selected for MacArthur fellowships this year, Fitzsimmons said.
Each fellowship comes with a $500,000 grant, which the foundation bestows on its fellows in quarterly installments over five years. The fellows are free to spend the money as they wish.
Shay grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, attended Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania, and ran a laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, studying the biochemistry of brain cells and why they die so fast after a stroke.
Then, at the age of 40, Shay had a stroke. He went into a coma for several days and emerged temporarily paralyzed on the left side of his body.
It took him a year to recover fully.
While he was convalescing, Shay "decided to plug up the holes in my education" and read the English translations of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
In 1987 Shay went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, hoping to open a lab and restart his research career. In return, Shay, a psychiatrist, agreed to work as a counselor "at a very grimy, dilapidated day hospital on the top floor of a garage building on the edge of Chinatown here in Boston."
Almost immediately, psychiatry became the main focus of his work, and he soon found that the veterans he treated trusted him and responded to his counseling in ways he had not expected.
"The veterans simply kidnapped me," he said. "They saw something in me that I didn't see in myself, and they utterly redirected my life."
As he listened to the veterans during his sessions, he realized that the psychological trauma that haunted the veterans of the Vietnam War had also tormented the heroes of the Greek epics.
"I was hearing elements of the story of Achilles over and over again," Shay said.
Achilles, the hero of the "Iliad," is mistreated by his commander, who takes a girl, a prize of war, from him. Achilles is also tormented by the loss of his best friend in the Trojan War. With his ethical universe upended, he goes berserk.
Soon, Shay began to work on his first book, "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character."
In the book, he interspersed the story of Achilles with examples of his patients' losses and contentious relationships with their commanders in Vietnam to illustrate some of the causes of the troops' psychological wounds.
In "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming," published in 2002, Shay draws parallels between the perilous, 10-year journey home of Odysseus from the Trojan War and the psychological odyssey of veterans returning to civilian life.
Like the hero of the "Odyssey," whom Shay depicts as conniving and explosively violent as he travels the world battling monsters, veterans of contemporary wars are often danger-seekers.
In his book, Shay cites the example of a Navy veteran from South Boston who was the only member of his boat crew to survive an explosion in the Mekong Delta on March 17, 1968, during the Tet Offensive.
For years on the anniversary of the explosion, this veteran, whom Shay calls Wiry, "would go into a really rough fighting bar in Southie and just attack the meanest, toughest-looking guy in the bar and get himself beat up," Shay told the Globe.
Today, troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan tell similar stories about their mental struggles.
Shay believes that the analogies he draws in his books can be useful to help reduce and treat psychological trauma among those veterans.
"As long as human beings go to war and try to come home from war, these [epics] will speak to us," he said of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." "They truly hold up all that is generic about going to war and coming home from war."
Shay's books are "a wonderful resource for both clinicians and vets and their loved ones," said Keith Armstrong, a San Francisco psychiatrist and one of the authors of "Courage After Fire," a guide book on coping with trauma for troops who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families.
Shay wants to study how to improve the way the military treats the troops and their needs at a center he hopes to open at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He said he probably will not use the fellowship money to open the center, but said he hoped that the recognition that accompanies the award will help find donors.
"There will never be a war where people don't get hurt psychologically," Shay said. "But you can sure as hell avoid doing things that make injuries more frequent and more serious."
September 25, 2007 Work made him MacArthur fellow
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Correspondent
When Boston psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wanted to understand the psychological toll of the Vietnam War on the veterans he treated, he turned to the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
The classical Greek epics perfectly encapsulate the mental damage of combat, said Shay, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston.
He wrote two books that draw on the similarities between the Vietnam-era trauma of his patients and the stress of combat that Homer portrayed in poems that may be as old as 2,800 years.
Today, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will announce that Shay, 65, has been selected as a 2007 MacArthur fellow "for his work in using literary parallels from Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' to treat combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans."
"His work is important for delivering healthcare to all those who put their lives on the line in the service of our country," said Mark D. Fitzsimmons, associate director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. "It's fair to describe it as pertinent."
Shay is one of 24 people selected for MacArthur fellowships this year, Fitzsimmons said.
Each fellowship comes with a $500,000 grant, which the foundation bestows on its fellows in quarterly installments over five years. The fellows are free to spend the money as they wish.
Shay grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, attended Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania, and ran a laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, studying the biochemistry of brain cells and why they die so fast after a stroke.
Then, at the age of 40, Shay had a stroke. He went into a coma for several days and emerged temporarily paralyzed on the left side of his body.
It took him a year to recover fully.
While he was convalescing, Shay "decided to plug up the holes in my education" and read the English translations of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey."
In 1987 Shay went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, hoping to open a lab and restart his research career. In return, Shay, a psychiatrist, agreed to work as a counselor "at a very grimy, dilapidated day hospital on the top floor of a garage building on the edge of Chinatown here in Boston."
Almost immediately, psychiatry became the main focus of his work, and he soon found that the veterans he treated trusted him and responded to his counseling in ways he had not expected.
"The veterans simply kidnapped me," he said. "They saw something in me that I didn't see in myself, and they utterly redirected my life."
As he listened to the veterans during his sessions, he realized that the psychological trauma that haunted the veterans of the Vietnam War had also tormented the heroes of the Greek epics.
"I was hearing elements of the story of Achilles over and over again," Shay said.
Achilles, the hero of the "Iliad," is mistreated by his commander, who takes a girl, a prize of war, from him. Achilles is also tormented by the loss of his best friend in the Trojan War. With his ethical universe upended, he goes berserk.
Soon, Shay began to work on his first book, "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character."
In the book, he interspersed the story of Achilles with examples of his patients' losses and contentious relationships with their commanders in Vietnam to illustrate some of the causes of the troops' psychological wounds.
In "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming," published in 2002, Shay draws parallels between the perilous, 10-year journey home of Odysseus from the Trojan War and the psychological odyssey of veterans returning to civilian life.
Like the hero of the "Odyssey," whom Shay depicts as conniving and explosively violent as he travels the world battling monsters, veterans of contemporary wars are often danger-seekers.
In his book, Shay cites the example of a Navy veteran from South Boston who was the only member of his boat crew to survive an explosion in the Mekong Delta on March 17, 1968, during the Tet Offensive.
For years on the anniversary of the explosion, this veteran, whom Shay calls Wiry, "would go into a really rough fighting bar in Southie and just attack the meanest, toughest-looking guy in the bar and get himself beat up," Shay told the Globe.
Today, troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan tell similar stories about their mental struggles.
Shay believes that the analogies he draws in his books can be useful to help reduce and treat psychological trauma among those veterans.
"As long as human beings go to war and try to come home from war, these [epics] will speak to us," he said of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." "They truly hold up all that is generic about going to war and coming home from war."
Shay's books are "a wonderful resource for both clinicians and vets and their loved ones," said Keith Armstrong, a San Francisco psychiatrist and one of the authors of "Courage After Fire," a guide book on coping with trauma for troops who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families.
Shay wants to study how to improve the way the military treats the troops and their needs at a center he hopes to open at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He said he probably will not use the fellowship money to open the center, but said he hoped that the recognition that accompanies the award will help find donors.
"There will never be a war where people don't get hurt psychologically," Shay said. "But you can sure as hell avoid doing things that make injuries more frequent and more serious."
