Post Vietnam syndrome: neurosis or sociosis?

Recently released figures from the Veterans Administration on the number of Vietnam veterans who have been granted service connection in their claims for post-traumatic stress disorder appear to be astonishingly low, given the publicity that the media and mental health professionals have placed on this diagnosis in recent years. As of the summer of 1984, only slightly more than 7,000 Vietnam veteran cases had been approved by VA rating boards. A conservative popular estimate is that half a million Vietnam veterans are alleged to suffer from this neurosis, which is largely attributable to combat-related experiences. This gross discrepancy raises many serious questions about the appropriate use of the clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. The point of contention is not the legitimacy of the diagnosis, but the abuse and misuse of the term for personal or political purposes to explain the dilemma of the Vietnam veteran in contemporary America. The traditional psychodynamic content of clinical psychology needs to be integrated with an analysis of the impact of social, political, historical, economic, and philosophical forces on individual and group dynamics. The objective of this paper is to examine those forces, the social and historical conditions in particular, which have contributed to the origin, development, and prolongation of readjustment difficulties for Vietnam veterans.