Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Fiction and Reality: Anguish and Agony

Abstract

This chapter considers the diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder first as it applies to returning military personnel past and present. The American military, specifically, began by discounting the diagnosis as nothing more than cowardice, only to move in recent years to not only acknowledge the reality of this condition, but to actively attempt to get help to those who are suffering from it. Challenges emerge when the military’s mentality of being strong—physically and mentally—clashes with the notion of soldiers feeling empowered to seek out help. From here, the chapter considers how Metal Gear Solid V presents a complex vision of trauma and its lasting effects, one which avoids stereotyping all forms of trauma in the same way. Further still, Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain both illustrate that one does not simply and suddenly recover from trauma and that its lasting effects linger, perhaps for a lifetime.