The Critical Power of an Expanded Concept of Moral Injury

Bibliographic Data

ID14760677
AuthorsRosemary Kellison (0000-0003-2085-7645, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue3
Pages442-461
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jore.12361
OpenAlexW3206580706
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

Contemporary analyses of moral injury in war focus on its occurrence in American veterans who commit or witness acts contrary to their deeply held moral beliefs. Moral injuries suffered by noncombatants are largely absent from this discourse. I advocate for greater inclusion of the victim‐centered perspective in studies of moral injury in war. This perspective conceptualizes moral injury as the specific harm suffered when one's moral humanity is not recognized. Given that susceptibility to moral injury is part of moral personhood, failure to acknowledge noncombatants' moral injury represents failure to recognize their full and particular personhood and thus may inflict further moral injury. Centering noncombatants' moral injury strengthens the critical power of moral injury, enabling the identification of specific steps toward establishing just relationships and social trust to repair and prevent moral injury in noncombatants and combatants alike

Commit · Environmental ethics · Harm · Moral authority · Moral disengagement · Moral injury · Moral rights · Personhood · Political science · Power (physics · Sociology · Witness · Law · Philosophy · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology · Social Psychology · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification

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