The Pilgrimage of Wounds on the Healing Path

ABSTRACT

Jungian psychotherapist Dr. Edward Tick has worked with American veterans of foreign wars for decades. During that time, he learned that one of the most effective paths to healing was to guide Vietnam veterans back there to retrieve their souls that had been left behind, often for decades. He took the acronym PTSD and translated it as Post-traumatic Soul Distress. Those in the medical profession worked with the physical injuries of traumatized veterans; however, they overlooked the trauma to the souls of these returning warriors. Tick and his wife, Kate Dahlstedt, founded Soldier’s Heart (www.soldiersheart.net) in order to travel more deeply into the mythology, spirituality, and psychology of woundedness. He continues his work today in branching out to a larger population suffering the wounds of a society itself in need of soul intervention. There, too, he deepens his interest in ancient forms of healing in the tradition of the ancient healer Asklepios, by guiding pilgrims to ancient healing sites in Greece.

KEY WORDS:

• archetypal
• healing
• mature elders
• psyche
• recovery
• remembrance
• retreats
• return
• rituals
• soul
• story
• violence
• trauma
• warrior wounds
• women veterans
• war
• Vietnam

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dennis Patrick Slattery

DENNIS PATRICK SLATTERY, PhD, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of thirty-three volumes, including seven volumes of poetry, as well as over two hundred articles. His latest book is The Fictions in Our Convictions: Essay on the Cultural Imagination (2023). He offers Writing Myth retreats in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Ireland using the works of Joseph Campbell and others. Correspondence: [email protected]. Website: www.dennispatrickslattery.com.