Olivia Prévost
February 1, 2006
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Radio Essay
What kind of questions elicited the responses?
-What images do you remember from Kuwait? What made you think/experience led you to see a doctor/made you think you had PTSD?
-What made you want to fight for the PTSD definition?
-What obstacles did you encounter?
-Who was involved? Did you feel alone?
-What are the effects of the diagnosis?
-What took longer to change (than the initial definition)?
“What led you to ~”, “What were the obstacles?”: Questions that elicit emotionally charged stories
Begin with:
- Explaining Tape (who, what, where, when?)
Lead up to (more difficult for interviewee):
- Reflection/Analysis Tape (why, how?)
How many interviews are there in the radio essay? Their roles?
-1st: Kuwait veteran (Kevin Knight?), image of child’s shoe, ignite/gets listener emotionally involved – “modest success story,” introducing concept of PTSD – question of how came about, not involved in the history of the disorder, so more of outside view/less biased/more believable
-2nd: Vietnam veteran, excessive anger (Smith?),human voice of chronological story (to answer question), 1970 meeting of Vietnam veterans – all had similar kinds of experiences and problems ----- “what is going on?”
-3rd: Robert Lifton (with excerpts of Smith’s interview of Lifton’s immediate responses), one of two psychiatrists invited to above meeting, called it “Post-Vietnam Syndrome,” acts as credible participant/observer of term – more institutional
-4th: psychiatrist (Art Blank?) working at Vietnam hospital during 70’s: “heard was going to bankrupt the US treasury” – already stated in essay, but only by narrator, misdiagnoses (one misdiagnosis friend of Smith’s, so another excerpt from his interview), corroborates with Smith
-5th: (Prof Wilburs Scott) about putting syndrome in manual – not actually he who did it, but still first hand information, expert with historical perspective and not involved – objective overview
-making of definition for Vietnam Vets more inclusive
-Smith trying to become psychiatrist – PTSD doesn’t exist
-One of most faked diagnoses
-But, Knight: “image will never leave me” and better off because of diagnosis
How PTSD was first recognized?