The silenced patriot: embodied experiences of post-9/11 veterans’ mental health and the limits of biomedical psychiatry
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Abstract
This thesis argues that the dominance of biomedical psychiatry in post-9/11 veteran mental health care imposes a reductive model that fails to account for the moral, relational, and cultural dimensions of veterans’ experiences. By prioritizing diagnosis and symptom control, biomedical psychiatry often overlooks the complex realities veterans face after service, reinforcing stigma, constraining recovery, and limiting more meaningful forms of healing. In contrast, narrative-based and relational approaches offer more holistic, context-sensitive models of care.Biomedical psychiatry, as defined in clinical literature, frames mental illness primarily as a dysfunction of brain chemistry or neural circuitry, emphasizing standardized diagnosis and pharmaceutical treatment (Rose 2007). While effective in managing acute symptoms, this model frequently marginalizes veterans’ lived experiences, reducing trauma to isolated pathology.
This study draws on Thomas Csordas’s theory of embodiment, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality, and Faye Ginsburg’s concept of “disabling worlds” to critique how psychiatric institutions limit veterans' understanding and expression of distress. It further builds on Carol Gilligan’s ethic of care to argue for healing approaches rooted in relationship and narrative.
Conducted in Boston, Massachusetts, this research employs ethnographic methods including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and artifact and narrative analysis. It explores how post-9/11 veterans navigate fragmented care systems, stigma, and civic landscapes that simultaneously honor and obscure their presence. A flexible research design addressed challenges intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the relative social invisibility of veterans in urban life.
Ultimately, this thesis calls for a shift toward interdisciplinary, veteran-centered care that transcends the limitations of the clinical gaze and prioritizes relational healing. Many veterans actively pursue healing through community, storytelling, and peer support, demonstrating the importance of culturally responsive, morally attuned care systems that better reflect the complexity of veterans’ post-service lives.
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2025