The materiality of virtual war: Post-traumatic stress disorder and the disabling effects of imperialism

Abstract

A slew of recent news coverage has reported favorably on the use of virtual reality video games as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Drawing on critical disability studies work, this paper argues that such depictions (re)produce a depoliticized framework for understanding PTSD that champions medicotechnological interventions and hinders broader social and political activism by taking for granted and normalizing conditions of perpetual war. Through an analysis of medical research and media portrayals extolling such technologies, this paper unravels the contradictory logic in these celebratory depictions to condemn imperialism, problematize the use of virtual reality for PTSD treatment, and ultimately call for anti-imperialist disability studies scholarship and disability activism.