Moral Injury

[LukeDing]

I am posting this because I came across this recently and found it useful and think it may be relevant to others. I would prefer to post this in short form but does not seem to have permission.

https://​​www.thelancet.com/​​journals/​​lanpsy/​​article/​​PIIS2215-0366(21)00113-9/​​fulltext

[michel]

Learned a new concept today! Pasting in the summary in case people don’t click on the link but are still curious:

Moral injury is understood to be the strong cognitive and emotional response that can occur following events that violate a person’s moral or ethical code.

Potentially morally injurious events include a person’s own or other people’s acts of omission or commission, or betrayal by a trusted person in a high-stakes situation. For example, health-care staff working during the COVID-19 pandemic might experience moral injury because they perceive that they received inadequate protective equipment, or when their workload is such that they deliver care of a standard that falls well below what they would usually consider to be good enough.

Unlike post-traumatic stress disorder, which can occur following threat-based trauma, potentially morally injurious events do not necessarily involve a threat to life. Rather, morally injurious events threaten one’s deeply held beliefs and trust. Moral injury is not considered a mental illness. However, an individual’s experiences of potentially morally injurious events can cause profound feelings of shame and guilt, and alterations in cognitions and beliefs (eg, “I am a failure”, “colleagues don’t care about me”), as well as maladaptive coping responses (eg, substance misuse, social withdrawal, or self-destructive acts). It is these challenged beliefs and altered appraisals that are thought to lead to the development of mental health problems, with a 2018 meta-analysis finding that exposure to potentially morally injurious events was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidality.

[Niyorurema Pacifique]

That is so insightful, thanks for sharing!

[LukeDing]

Thanks, I was told about this by a psychologist.