PTSD – Matt Lynn Digital

Jason Kander and the book ‘Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD’

Jason Kander served in the United States Army with a deployment to Afghanistan. Kander became the first millennial to serve state office when elected to the Missouri state legislature in 2008, later winning election as Missouri Secretary of State in 2012. Kander ran a close yet losing bid for United States Senator from Missouri in 2016. The possibility for legitimate Democratic Party leadership at the national level came about in the aftermath of that.

(Former **Missouri** Secretary of State **Jason Kander** wrote **Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD**).

Published in July of 2022, Kander‘s book Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD tells stories of the author’s life roughly from multiple points in time. We get some sense of Mr. Kander‘s childhood relationship with his father and community, of getting to know his wife, and through the feedback he received to choosing military service and then serving in a military intelligence capacity. We learn of the author becoming a father; the decision-making to run for political office too came up.

(From left, **Diana Kander**, **True Kander** and **Jason Kander**).

Then there were some realities of running for office, and the reasons why. The signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were present in this period. The signs were explained away and coped with as well as the man knew how. The secondary impact of giving the author’s wife and son experiences of PTSD were present, with these too being unrecognized. The details, personal and human for sure, were present in that information shared by Jason Kander and his wife, Diana Kander.

I’ll defer to your reading of Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD to gain a proper sense for the somewhat gradual means for how the author came to this decision, yet it was in Jason Kander‘s acceptance and then action to address his PTSD with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that Mr. Kander announced his stepping away from pursuing public service through political office. The ability to have this announced publicly, and then addressing much of the substance of why within this book with Diana Kander voice in part, offers a service to those in need in the United States.

(From left, **Jason Kander** and **United States** **Senator** from Massachusetts **Elizabeth Warren** campaigning for the **United States** **Senate**).

Finding the Veterans Community Project as a means of serving after Senator Elizabeth Warren picked up some of Kander‘s voting rights work, Kander has been able to channel a need to continue serving. This comes after his doing the real work of getting emotionally healthier through understanding what PTSD has been for him and his family. The journey that Jason Kander, Diana Kander and their family has experienced in getting back to something emotionally tenable and satisfying is a clear triumph. The experience of the book helps me grant Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD by Jason Kander 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Monday, August 8, 2022

Judith Lewis Herman and the book ‘Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror’

Mental health, when given its best chance for success, frequently needs a community that thinks empathetically about what suffering is. That American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author Judith Lewis Herman moved standards within the psychiatric profession in this direction with Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror is a testimony to the force of Herman‘s work and the combined need and accomplishment for treating traumatic stress.

(Alternative book covers for the book **Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror** by **Judith Lewis Herman**).

The book that Judith Lewis Herman primarily was written from a feminist perspective, which was completely necessary when considering societal attitudes governing the legitimate powerlessness that occurred when women have been assaulted through the physical, mental and emotional crime of rape. The book additionally tackles the experiences of other domestic abuse at home, combat veterans, including veterans of the Vietnam War, and those who experienced concentration camps, such as existed during World War Two.

(**American** psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author **Judith Lewis Herman** wrote **Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror**).

Much of Herman‘s professional work has been in the world of rape and domestic abuse, and the recovery efforts that support this. The parallels of this are juxtaposed against the written literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror. The larger lesson that emerges when therapists listen carefully is that much of the disbelief, shaming and perpetrator pushback against accountability encountered in private and public traumas require people to become audience to active hear the suffering of those with legitimate traumatic experiences. Flipping the script from continuing to traumatize through disbelief to healing by witnessing is the point. Allowing those suffering to experience stages of healing, without judgment or blame but with comprehension, is additionally the point.

(**Judith Lewis Herman** wrote **Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror**, which was first published on June 11th, 1992).

In many ways, I found the experiences and specific examples expressed for ways to be present the perspective that I took from reading Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. That empathy can be the result of reading this book is the big element of positive feedback that I hope to convey. I grant Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Janelle Monáe, Stephan James and Season Two of the series ‘Homecoming’

The Amazon Prime Original Series Homecoming (2018- ) offered a 7-episode second season in May 2020. With Executive Producer credits for Academy Award winning actress Julia Roberts from the opening season a memory, the intrigue of a series building on military members suffering from PTSD having been mistreated through conniving executives moves to a second season built on top of the first.

(John Billingsley as Buddy and Janelle Monáe as Jackie (and Alex) in the second season of **Homecoming**).

The second season begins in the startling aftermath of where the first began, which is with victim Walter Cruz, as portrayed by Stephan James, living the seemingly normal life of the PTSD soldier with missing war memories done at the hands of Geist Corporation. We encounter Jackie, as portrayed by Janelle Monáe, in a confused state to herself and, initially, to us in the audience with a memory of the opening season. The initial episode ends shockingly for Jackie, whose story becomes sensible only through the layered uncovering of the ongoing story of Audrey Temple, as portrayed by Hong Chau.

(From left, **Stephan James** as Walter Cruz and **Hong Chau** as Audrey Temple, who had roles in seasons one and two of the series **Homecoming**).

The intersecting story of Chau, Colin Belfast as portrayed by Bobby Cannavale, Ron as portrayed by Fran Kranz, and Geist president Leonard Geist becomes entangled, intertwined, and a compelling part of the narrative. Chris Cooper portrays Leonard Geist. The conflict here among these characters, Francine Bunda as portrayed by Joan Cusack, Walter Cruz and, of course, Jackie, brings us to the main conflicts of the second season. Learning how things will turn out is the object of the second season.

(Chris Cooper as Leonard Geist in the second season of the television series **Homecoming**).

The story of the second season, as with the first, offered suspense, intrigue, and surprises throughout. The connection and consistency with the first season are appreciated and well done. I appreciated the second round of this show, and would increase my rating of the first as a result. Overall, my grade for the second season of Homecoming is 3.50-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 stars.

Matt – Saturday, November 21, 2020

Josh Ritter and the book ‘Bright’s Passage’

It was my friend Cobra who suggested I read Bright’s Passage by Idaho native and country musician Josh Ritter. Unique in structure and thoughtful in terms of provoking thoughts of the true nature of what we were experiencing through one family presented as separate through movements in time, Bright’s Passage is an ambitious first novel that benefits from the experiences of a songwriter become author.

(Considered musical royalty for fans of Americana and the fusion of rock, country and blues, **Josh Ritter** wrote the book **Bright’s Passage**, which is the subject of this review).

Central to Bright’s Passage are the World War One experiences of Henry Bright as a soldier in France. Further there’s the abject sadness of Henry’s childhood beside his mother, three cousins, an aunt, an uncle by marriage, and the extreme poverty of all these parties in West Virginia before the war. Finally, the two histories co-mingle with Henry losing his wife in childbirth, and the burning of his childhood home. Losing faith in his skills as a husband, father, and family member when mingled with real trauma and potential Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) manifested through what one must question is relationships with animals and others, potentially in his imagination.

(**Josh Ritter** reading from **Bright’s Passage** at independent bookseller Politics and Prose in Washington DC).

The largely parallel unfolding of the three major story lines are done in small chapters that speak to timelines one at a time. Parts of the backstory are revealed bits at a time, with the larger sense for context gaining emotional impact, depth, and questions about what the nature of what really is happening as we experience them. The passage Henry Bright takes in Bright’s Passage is poignant, potentially criminal, and decidedly sympathetic should the reader have the patience to read the book to its full potential. I rate Bright’s Passage by Josh Ritter at 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Rebecca West and the book ‘The Return of the Soldier’

A piece of fiction set in country estates near London England, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West offers the story of a shell-shocked soldier from World War One the novel subtly explores questions of gender, class, identity and memory in the late 1910s of English society.