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‘The Bullet-Proof Mind’: Resilience and Warfighters in the US Marine Corps

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Resilience

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Abstract

This chapter explores the way the concept of resilience is used in the US Marines in the twenty-first century. ‘Resilience’ valorizes character, choice, and Marine Corps values, rather than technology, medical developments, or belief in a higher mission. The Corps adopted ‘positive psychology’ deployed in the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program and Operational Stress Control and Readiness. These initiatives created tensions because of difference between macro-policies and micro-implementations as well as the coexistence of two different approaches (the physiological-social and emotional-social model). The chapter turns to responses to ‘bad events’ where attempts were made to distinguish distress of combat from avoidable traumas. The chapter concludes by addressing some of the larger political and ideological consequences of ‘resilience’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that articles in the Marine Corps Gazette and the Leatherneck are unpaginated.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Joanna Bourke

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  1. Joanna Bourke
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Correspondence to Joanna Bourke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Joanna Bourke

  2. Peace and Violence Unit, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Robin May Schott

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Bourke, J. (2022). ‘The Bullet-Proof Mind’: Resilience and Warfighters in the US Marine Corps. In: Bourke, J., Schott, R.M. (eds) Resilience. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13367-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13367-1_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-13366-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13367-1

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