Military psychology: job, career, lifestyle
(November 2007 Issue)

Louis Banderet, Ph.D., is warfighter cognitive performance team leader with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. (photo by Tom Croke)

By Catherine Robertson Souter

Louis Banderet, Ph.D., works in research. John Mark Rodolico, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital. Jaine Darwin, Psy.D., fronts a non-profit organization for clinicians to provide pro bono services to families of service members. Brett Litz, Ph.D., is a professor at Boston University.

From seemingly far reaches of the world of psychology, what do they all have in common? In addition to being psychologists, each of these professionals works with the military, either directly or indirectly.

Military psychology, by definition, means the act of applying psychological expertise to military needs. But, while the definition sounds simple, the profession encompasses a variety of professionals. Military psychology can mean enlisting in the service, like Rodolico, who has served two tours of duty in Iraq as a major in the Army National Guard. It can also mean doing research on conditions a soldier might encounter, as Banderet does, or studying the causes of posttraumatic stress. Or it can mean finding ways to help family members who have lost a loved one or who are having a difficult time with the constant fear of having a family member in a war zone.

"The field is much more diverse than it ever was," says Will Wilson, Ph.D., president-elect of the American Psychological Association's Division 19 - Military Psychology, "and that calls for unique skills, development and training. We have psychologists serving as 'aircraft carrier psychologists;' SERE (Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion) specialists; or supervising interrogation with special attention to human dignity and rights. There are psychologists who are training small groups to work with indigenous populations; assessment and evaluation experts working with pre-and post-deployment assessments; child and family therapists; and a number of other specific areas."

A member of the APA's Division 19 could have nearly any specialty within the profession. The field is not defined by technique, school of learning or the issues with which they deal. Instead, military psychologists are defined by the client: where their trade is applied and with whom.

"The APA has something like 50 divisions for just about anything you can think of. If you tell someone you're with, say Division 3 - Experimental Psychology, that tells a lot about what you do," says Division 19 President Michael Matthews, Ph.D. "But with Division 19, it could be anything - family practice, couples, research. Diversity is really one of the hallmarks of the job."

For Louis Banderet, Ph.D., warfighter cognitive performance team leader with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass., working as a civilian for the military has been rewarding. Conducting tests to determine a subject's response to intense situations - heat, lack of sleep, altitude - Banderet and his team study how a soldier's environment might affect his/her abilities to handle a job and what treatment might be applied to counteract the effects.

"Most of the things we do at altitude range from sea level to a max of 15,000 feet," he says. "That becomes real in the situation in Iraq. There are mountains where helicopters have to rise up 12 to 14,000 feet just to get where they are going."

The researchers then put the test subjects through various routine activities such as changing a tire or carrying heavy loads or shooting at targets to see how the atmospheric and physical challenges affect their ability to do necessary tasks.

It's a job that has become a career for Banderet, having started nearly 37 years ago.

How has that job changed since 9/11 and the Iraq war? Because he is a civilian, Banderet cannot be sent overseas or relocated. He has noted a dearth of military test subjects and the fact that many of his colleagues have seen active duty makes the work he has done all the more urgent and valid.

For Rodolico, who is an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and a senior addictions consultant and associate psychologist at McLean Hospital, being on the ground in Iraq with a Combat Stress Control (CSC) unit has brought its own brand of reward. Having returned in late 2006 from a second tour of duty where Rodolico worked as executive officer of the company, he has found a new appreciation for the small things in life.

"When I first came home, I was fascinated with flush toilets," he says.

A group of mental health professionals, with three psychologists among them, his CSC unit offered one-on-one counseling to active duty troops. "We met with soldiers having combat stress," he says. "One had a phobia to wearing his gas mask. There are people who get suicidal, who get 'Dear John' or 'Dear Jane' emails."

The good news is that between 2003 and 2006, Rodolico saw a decrease in the stigma attached to mental health issues in the military. The armed forces, he says, are more open to how mental health professionals can help them achieve their goals. It's not uncommon for his staff to see commanders come in for help with stress, albeit discreetly.

"We are working hard to get past that stigma," he says. "We work with the commanders and tell them that we are here to multiply their force, not break it down."

There is a shortage of psychologists in active duty, which an APA report put at 40% vacancy rate in a January study. While Rodolico hasn't personally experienced the results of this shortage, he can see why it could occur.

"I'm not up on the figures," he says, "but I'd guess that a lot of people probably went once and said that's enough. They are not getting psychologists to enlist or re-enlist."

Working with the military has benefits, from paid training to pension and health benefit plans to leadership potential to 30 days of vacation time per year. But for many, the tradeoff of going to war is not worth it.

This shortage has brought people like Jaine Darwin, Psy.D., into the picture. A psychologist in Cambridge and division representative for APA Division 39 - Psychoanalysis, she was a founding member of SOFAR (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists), a non-profit organization based in Needham, Mass., to offer mental health volunteers a way to provide pro bono therapy for soldiers and their families.

Darwin has found a new appreciation for the job done by the armed services and the unique pressures they are faced with.

"As someone who grew up picketing through the 60's, I have learned to have respect and to understand things about duty and honor that I didn't understand before," she said. "It is your job to do your mission and to support your comrades and if you don't, your comrades suffer. It causes conflict in families around the question of whose needs get met and in what order. You realize that, when a soldier serves, the family also serves."

The large numbers of deployed military personnel has put a strain on the mental health system that cares for them. The rates of PTSD and other mental illness have shot up dramatically.

Brett Litz, Ph.D., a professor with the psychiatry department at Boston University and BU's School of Medicine, is also the associate director of the behavioral sciences division of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Health Care System. Litz is the principal investigator for several research studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Canadian Ministry of Veterans Affairs to explore early intervention strategies for survivors of trauma.

His research on traumatic stress related to military deployment has shown him how necessary it is to develop treatment methods that are specifically directed at military personnel. Basic life circumstances differ vastly and the needs of the military staff differ from civilian life.

"In the civilian world, patients have the time and inclination and can focus," he says. "Service members often do not have the time to devote to therapy or the inclination. These obstacles can be overcome and the challenges can be faced as we move forward to try to bring intervention strategies that have been shown to be effective in the civilian world to the military context."

Although he doesn't readily identify himself as a "military psychologist," Litz's work falls neatly into the category's most broad definition of applying psychological expertise to military needs.

"One of the challenges we face is that evidence-based therapies for PTSD have been exclusively applied and studied outside the military culture. This needs to be addressed head-on. There are stark differences between the prevailing PTSD world and the military context," he adds.

Leading Stories | Columns | Book Reviews | Hospital Directory
Residential School Directory | Advertising | Classifieds | About Us