Resilience as the Road to Mental Readiness? Reflections from an Ethics-of-care Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, moral injury in the armed forces has captured the attention of mental health care providers, policy makers and the general public. Military organizations endeavor to prevent and reduce moral injury among their personnel to minimize the tremendous costs incurred on military readiness, government budgets and the well-being of soldiers. This is reflected in training programs that promise to deliver mental readiness and mitigate risks of mental health problems. Our concern is that by focusing on “resilience” as positive policy language, the complexities of situations, including “negative” emotions such as sorrow or fear and the values underlying these emotions, are disregarded. An overly optimistic focus on resilience while overlooking these complications may be counterproductive, and may actually do soldiers harm.