CCRN coleman prsnl statmnt 07mar15

The Concerned Clinicians' and Researchers' Network (CCRN)
A Personal Statement from Your Initial Organizer
Veterans' psychological problems are proliferating. Their suffering demands that
we as clinicians and researchers devise innovative interventions that can alleviate
their emotional pain. Groundbreaking literature that relates veterans' actual
experiences has emerged in the last several years. It can aid our effort, but it
deserves serious recognition through further research and better treatment
applications.
Compelling Circumstances
My own critique of mainstream PTSD etiology and treatment for veterans began
spontaneously almost nine years ago. In late 2006 an editorial in the NASW
California News, entitled "Love, Honor, Obey," struck me as a glamorized view of
veterans' psychological trauma. On behalf of the NASW-California Social Action
Social Justice Council, I wrote a rebuttal* using facts and concepts from a course
on the anthropology of war that I had taught some years before, first at Case
Western Reserve University and later at the University of Oregon.
Ever since writing that article I have been gathering information on all aspects of
veterans' reintegration into civilian society, in response to the crescendo of
psychological pathologies among veterans and expressions of concern among my
social work colleagues.
Coming Home to Veterans
A recognized conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, I served as a surgical
orderly and assistant in a Veterans Administration hospital from February of
1969 to August of 1971. In 2005 I joined Veterans for Peace (VFP) as an associate
member. After I conducted a well received workshop on militarism, PTSD and
suicide in the summer of 2014 at the VFP annual convention in Asheville, North
Carolina, I was chosen to coordinate VFP's PTSD Working Group.
Professional Qualifications
Credentials are essential to a professional organizing effort, particularly when
the goal is to launch a paradigmatic alternative mostly through impersonal
channels of communication. I am a Lecturer at California State University, Long
Beach, in the Department of Asian & Asian-American Studies. I have had a long
career of research and publication in academic anthropology as a medical
anthropologist and Japan specialist (PhD, Columbia University 1978) who has
conducted extensive field research. I have always approached my research
subjects empathetically as fellow human beings, from Japanese married couples
dealing with unwanted pregnancies (Family Planning in Japanese Society:
Traditional Birth Control in a Modern Urban Culture, Princeton University Press,
1983) to young Japanese biomedical researchers encountering professional
roadblocks (Japanese Science: From the Inside, Routledge, 1999), and I've done it
with sensitivity and in accordance with the highest ethical standards. My major
research projects were funded with grants from the Social Science Research
Council, National Science Foundation, NIH / NICHD, and the Japan Foundation.
I also have over four years of direct practice experience in assisting caregivers of
loved ones with debilitating cognitive disorders (Orange Caregiver Resource
Center Family Consultant, 2003 - 2007).
My complete academic CV is available at my academic web site, coleman.tk .
Current Research
My own current research topic, just begun, concerns Asian-American veterans'
re-integration into civilian society.
Sam Coleman
[email protected]
* "What's Really Ailing Our Veterans? Where We Can Start Looking." NASW
California News, 2007, Vol 33 (4), pp. 1, 20. NASW California has not archived the
article for internet access but a pdf file (2.7 MB) is available from me on request