On Moral Injury
Resistance is the road to recovery.
The term moral injury emerged from studies on trauma, specifically in veterans. In 1994, Jonathan Shay originally defined it as the "betrayal of what's right, by a person who holds legitimate authority in a high stakes situation." On a broader level, moral injury refers to the "psychological, social and spiritual impact of events involving betrayal or transgression of one's own deeply held moral beliefs and values occurring in high stakes situations." Moral injury happens when you betray your own code out of necessity, or someone else does it to you.
The first studies focused on veterans. Now research is showing that moral injury goes well beyond the battlefield. As Harold Koenig and Faten Al Zaben write, moral injury "has expanded...to include similar emotions experienced by healthcare professionals, first responders, and others experiencing moral emotions resulting from actions taken or observations made during traumatic events or circumstances."
Koenig and Al Zaben trace the con…