Out of Residency and into the Field: Reflections of a Junior Psychoanalytic Psychiatrist on a Iraq Deployment

Abstract

I was deployed from June 2010 until Jan 2011 with 21st Combat Support Hospital (CSH) to Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher near Tikrit, Iraq. The deployment time spanned the draw down from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) to Operation New Dawn (OND), which was the final year of US troops in Iraq. Regarding integrating my deployment experience, I am one of the few contemporary military psychiatrists who pursued additional training in psychoanalysis. A feature of psychoanalysis is to highlight the interaction between the mind’s internal structure and external concrete reality—how these separate internecine worlds influence each other. Though I was first deployed in 2010, my internal experience of combat began much earlier.

In this chapter the author reflects on his personal experiences of a 6 month deployment to Iraq in 2010, as a US Army psychiatrist for 21st Combat Support Hospital (CSH). The author describes his duties, typical types of cases, general military experiences while deployed, and possibilities for psychodynamic/psychoanalytic work.