Street roots
Nov. 25 2011
Psychology in warfare, for better or worse
A Portland film m aker
looks at the m ilitary’s
foray into m ental health
treatment in the field
BY DEVAN SCHWARTZ
STAFF W R IT E R
an Haaken is a Portland State University
professor, a clinical psychologist and a
veteran documentary filmmaker. Her
rious films have focused on the fringes of
psychology, from war and reparation in
Sierra Leone to drag queens as community
therapists, to the dilemmas of patients and
staff at the Oregon State Hospitals.
In her latest film, “Mind Zone: Therapists
Behind the Front Lines,” Haaken brings
viewers to the U.S. Army base in Kandahar,
Afghanistan. Haaken and her crew
embedded with the 113th Combat Stress
Control Detachment, a mixed group of
psychologists and soldiers trained in basic
counseling. Haaken explains the two-fold
mission of these units as: (1) to prevent and
treat mental health and stress issues, and
(2) to maintain fighting forces.
Haaken began her focused research at
OHSU’s VA Medical Center and what
followed became “Mind Zone.” She expects
the film to be released this spring, pending
additional funds from a Kickstarter
campaign to complete the editing process
and “help bring us over the ridge.”
Whereas most Americans are familiar
with instances of post-traumatic stress
disorder paralleling protracted wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, Haaken recognizes that
few are aware of combat stress control. “I’m
lnieresTea m now my proressronis pemg
used and abused in military settings,” says
Haaken. “The role of psychology in warfare
and the military are a set of controversies.
They’re debates that have profound
impacts.”
i
P HO TO COURTESY OF J A N H A A K E N A N D M IN D ZO N E
Filmmaker and clinical psychologist Jan Haaken works on the set of her new film Mind Zone in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
We’re used to thinking about the military
only as conformity to the mission. But
people have the ability to try things,
including in these combat stress control
units and are quite creative. I also felt
Immediacy, Expectancy). PIE means you
treat people close to their unit and don’t
pull theni out unless you have to. This was
found to be effective in reducing
evacuations. You provide short-term care
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from young people gets converted into the
military. There’s kind of a socialist ethic, a
camaraderie and everyone sharing in a
common purpose, which always seems kind
of ironic.
Devan Schwartz: How long did you and
your team spend in Afghanistan?
D.S,: How did you select your main
interview subjects?
Ja n Haaken: Two-and-a-half weeks at
Kandahar’s central clinic. The detachment
left from the Joint Bases Lewis/McChord.
We’d been following them in pre-deployment
training both as soldiers and in their
therapeutic capacities. We filmed the unit
they were replacing and were there during
the handover process.
J.H.: After a lengthy pre-interview
process we chose subjects who are
interesting to watch and listen to and can
hold their place onscreen. We also wanted
to represent a range of characters. I
pursued the question of the so-called “new
military,” a different leadership style that
could be described as more maternal than
patriarchal.
My basic ethic for documentary film work
is picking characters I can portray in a
respectful way, but also be critical of what
they’re carrying out, problems that go
beyond their best efforts to manage them.
D.S.: What surprised you or subverted your
expectations when the filming took place?
J.H.: I didn’t realize what was required in
shifting personnel. They take over not only
a single job but whole institutions. I really
came to respect the soldiers. They’re
endearing and thoughtful and I was
surprised at the level of racial integration.
Seeing nil these soldiers from different
ethnic and racial backgrounds working
together, many doing things they’re not able
to do outside the military.
D.S.: The documentary examines Forward
Psychiatry and Resiliency Training — could
you explain each of these?
J.H.: The concept of Forward Psychiatry
developed in World War I. The anchoring
concept was an acronym, PIE (Proximity,
Soldiers leave the world of the father and
briefly enter the lap of the mother. You
communicate the expectation that they’re
going to go back and they’re going to be
fine;
Resiliency Training is newer and spreads
psychiatric principles down through the
military leadership structure. Non
commissioned officers train to be junior-
counselors. They draw on a mix of cognitive
behavior principles and psychological
principles. It disperses throughout the
military principles traditionally carried by
trained professionals. It’s good in a way that
leaders are gaining more interpersonal
skills, but given the conditions of the
military, and certainly in war zones, many of
us question whether this can be invasive or
manipulative. I question whether it’s a good
thing or not These techniques are not
completely benign.
Therapeutic techniques since Freud have
stirred concerns about privacy of thoughts
and mind. The issue of confidentiality has
been an important area of our work, and
questioning how institutions make use of
our private thoughts and feelings. Your
average employer has a right to ask
questions about your performance but not
about aspects of your inner world. Partly
responding to how many people are
psychologically-troubled and harmed by their
military experiences, they’ve become more
aggressive in medically-screening people
and monitoring the mind. Yet what seems to
be progressive is not always as progressive
as it looks. It’s not just one or the other.
D.S.: Could you speak briefly about the case
of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs and the
revelation of so-called “Kill Teams” within the
military?
J.H.: When you put people in an
environment that’s about killing people it
inevitably involves a certain amount of
dehumanizing. One concern I had was less
about PTSD conditions than overall racism
and cynicism that war creates. It should not
surprise us that these things accompany
war. The military makes some soldiers feel
contained and well cared for in ways they
may not have experienced. But the military
is not an actual family, and if it were, it
would certainly be judged to be abusive
parents. No good parents put their children
in life-threatening situations. But this comes
with the territory in sending soldiers to war.
This image of the unit as a family can deeply
disappoint soldiers who feel the realities of
this agreement with the military as they
enter war zones.
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