SG – Moral Injury

About Moral Injury

Can people be morally injured? And if so, what do we know about this new frontier of trauma specialisation? To what extent is this in the realm of individual experience and what can be said of collective moral injury? Dr. Jackie June ter Heide, clinical psychologist and senior researcher, discusses the sorrow saturation of spectators and shares insights into the cutting edge research being done in the field of Moral Injury. She will share her insights on the impacts of powerlessness; on the interpersonal aspects of trauma and the potential consequences of seeing things taking place which are not okay. What exactly happens when moral expectations and beliefs clash with actual events – far or near? What impact or influence can it have on individual or collective agency? Drawing on her current research and years of experience, she will also talk us through the aftermath of moral injury, taking into consideration individual and organisational/ societal level dimensions of recovery which reach to the heart of personal and societal values. Discover familiar notions of self-preservation and empowering perspectives at the crossroads between anthropology and psychology.

About lecture series Normalising the Abnormal

Developments which keep overtaking each other on the world stage have been challenging our emotional stamina and pressed hard on our moral compasses. It has even led many to tune out of following the news. This series explores psychological and social numbing which has crept into processing what we know and how we feel whilst moral alarm bells may be blaring inside many heads and hearts. Studium Generale invites you to unpack the personal and collective mechanisms at play in normalising the abnormal.

About Jackie June ter Heide

Dr. Jackie June ter Heide (1972) studied clinical psychology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and systematic theology at Cambridge University, UK. She currently works as a clinical psychologist at ARQ Centrum’45, an institute for patients suffering from complex psychotrauma in the Amsterdam area, the Netherlands, where she specializes in treatment of profession-related PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and moral injury. In addition, she is a senior researcher and coordinator of the ARQ research track on complex trauma. Jackie June has published on numerous topics including moral injury, treatment-seeking refugees, Complex PTSD, the dissociative subtype, moral injury and treatment of police officers. She is currently head researcher of several studies on moral injury in military veterans funded by the Dutch Veterans Institute and was chair of the Institute’s committee for establishing clinical guidelines for moral injury.