The space in between: Notes on a research-based play about moral injury and the transition to civilian life

Abstract

This research-based theatre project involved in-depth narrative interviews with nine Canadian Armed Forces Veterans who participated in the recent war in Afghanistan and with three health care professionals who regularly work with Veterans. Data from these interviews was transformed by the researcher and author into a 90-minute play titled The Space in Between: A Research-Based Play about Moral Injury and the Transition to Civilian Life. Each scene in the play represents one of the major themes that emerged during interview sessions (family, betrayal, brotherhood and mothering, public honour, sickness and coping). Sub-themes (heroism, the body, militarized masculinity, the role of women) became smaller or transition scenes in the play. This project was inspired by the work of Jonathan Shay, who looked to ancient Greek theatre to develop his concept of moral injury and who argued that healing will only take place in community. This arts-based and adult-education-focused research project explores the nuances of moral injury and the themes of guilt, shame, betrayal, and anger at its core. Dominant biomedical framings of military trauma (the diagnostic category of posttraumatic stress disorder) and resulting treatment approaches sometimes fall short and can risk individualizing and pathologizing normal human reactions to the emotions at the core of moral injury that, the author argues, merit philosophical and aesthetic (not only psychiatric) exploration.