Jonathan Shay, a history scholar and medical doctor, compared the similarities in personality between Vietnam war veterans and Achilles, the main character in Homer's classical epic "Iliad."
Shay is the author of "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character," which was released in May.
He discussed how the behavior and feelings, even characteristics of what he called the "berserk" state of mind of one in combat, were extraordinarily similar between Vietnam veterans he has spoken to and treated in comparison to the main character of the "Iliad."
Shay showed a video that was centered around a single photograph, Larry Burrow's "Reaching Out" (1966), which was shown in partial snapshot form. Throughout the video, veterans spoke, and one unknown speaker stated: "People in this country make a very big mistake of overlooking the veterans, every veteran."
Shay's in-depth lecture yesterday in the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences on the horror of war was drawn directly from the outline of his recent book.
Shay said that he "brought together veteran stories with the 'Iliad' for a deeper understanding of both."
