What Readers are Saying
Prepublication Editorial Reviews of Spates & Callaway
Richard Spates and Karis L. Callaway’s The Moral Injury Spectrum: From Conflict to Healing in Individual and Cultural Contexts brings thoughtful and timely scholarship and insight into the landscape of moral injury and how it is impacting many individuals living in a world beset with uncertainties.
The Moral Injury Spectrum: From Conflict to Healing in Individual and Cultural Contexts plants the reader fully on the ground with current cultural and political conflicts not only in our nation but the world by “emphasizing the need for better definition and research on moral injury, as well as collaboration across specialties to advance assessment, interventions, education, and prevention efforts.” As a public governmental mental health services authority for Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Integrated Services of Kalamazoo embraces evidence-based research and treatment for moral injury and the role our clinicians play in joining Dr. Spates and Callaway in further contributing to the ongoing development in the field of moral injury and preventing and mitigating the impact it has on individuals and society.
Dr. Spates and Callaway bring together a lifetime of research, scholarship, experience, and clinical practice to set the stage and provide guidance for randomized controlled trial development and advance the permanency of Moral Injury psychological intervention evidence-based practices.
Jeffrey W. Patton, MSW
Chief Executive Officer
Integrated Services of Kalamazoo
As an experienced Human Resources professional and coach to Fortune 500 executives, I have witnessed firsthand the often-debilitating impact of moral injury within organizations. From executives to the front lines, individuals at all levels struggle with the psychological, emotional, and spiritual fallout that results from witnessing, participating in, or failing to prevent actions that violate their moral beliefs and values. I see this happening in my work and appreciate its impact, but I have had difficulty providing practical strategies for dealing with it.
Throughout my 40-year career, I have seen the toll that moral injury takes on individuals and organizations. From the executives pressured to prioritize profits over employee well-being to the construction workers forced to cut corners on safety protocols to get the work done on schedule, the consequences of moral injury can very quickly impact an entire organizational culture. This book describes the impact of unresolved moral injury and highlights the potential for preventing and healing the damage through practical strategies while making a theoretical model into something useful for leadership coaches and organizational consultants who see the problem but struggle to address it.
Bill Redmon, Ph.D.
CEO
Kintla, LLC
https://www.kintla.io/
June 7, 2024
Among many positive features, the authors of this book render a valuable service by summoning readers to engage in the reality that a spiritual component exists to the concept of moral injury. They do so beginning in the Introduction of their work by informing us that “moral injury” as a technical designation was first introduced in the context of war and combat by Jonathan Shay, a psychiatrist who worked with Vietnam War veterans. “In his 1994 book … Shay used the term to describe the psychological, emotional, and spiritual harm that can result from participating in, witnessing, or failing to prevent acts that violate one’s deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”
Given my life’s vocation, I have come to the studied conclusion that intentionally acquiring an understanding of moral injury is essential for contemporary religious organizations and for those involved therein. I say this because of my protracted experience that the church/parachurch world can serve as both a salve and a source of moral injury.
As a seminarian back in the early 1980s, however, I used a quantitative survey to document emerging evidence of what would soon become common knowledge and virtually a regular feature of daily news broadcasts: sexual abuse perpetrated by and covered up by religious leaders in both Protestant and Roman Catholic ecclesiastical circles. Much of my time and energies while serving as a pastor thus involved interacting with people who had experienced moral injury from credentialed church leaders or others authorized and employed by a religious body.
I state this to convey that the topic addressed in this volume may be closer to your experience than you initially thought. Personal interaction with hundreds of victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by religious leaders of all types requires me to caution against myopic assumptions that moral injury is entirely foreign to a person’s personal experience or that of their loved ones simply because they have never enlisted for military combat.
Rev. Tim W. Callaway; BA, MDiv, ThM, ThD
Calgary, Canada
01 June 2024
The Moral Injury Spectrum provides a thorough examination of how moral injury manifests in clinical and societal settings, supported by case reports from the authors and references to significant relevant historical events. The book delves into the broad relevance of moral injury across various life domains and discusses its incorporation into treatment through evidence-based practices. Early chapters explore foundational work by Jonathan Shay and Brett Litz, establishing a solid framework for understanding moral injury, which often arises from participation in, witnessing, or failure to prevent violations of deeply held moral beliefs.
A comprehensive overview of moral injury across various contexts is provided, including corporate and manufacturing settings, military involvement, healthcare, law enforcement, and academia. Ethical decision-making, whistleblowing, workplace safety, combat exposure, and academic integrity are among the issues explored. The authors also address moral injury through religious and spiritual lenses. Specific situations, such as the Rwandan Peacekeeping force, illustrate the severe distress caused by the inability to prevent harm despite adherence to protocol.
The societal impact of moral injury extends beyond individuals, impacting occupational performance, trust, and societal cohesion. Issues like healthcare staffing shortages, intergenerational trauma, abuse of power, and health disparities are discussed. The authors emphasize the importance of continued research into moral injury and its integration into treatment plans.
Richard Spates, Ph. D., and Karis Callaway, Ph. D., offer a groundbreaking analysis of moral injury, providing clarity on its impact, assessment, treatment, and future directions. This book is poised to significantly impact the field of psychology and improve countless lives.
Lori Ryland, Ph.D., LP, BCBA-D, CAADC
Clinical Psychologist, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Advanced Addictions Counselor
June 7, 2024
Victims of the immoral perpetration of widely held moral values by “heroes” whose degradation of those values, on afterthought, cause them distress, are often left in the dust. As fallout, they are left to mend themselves or, at best, be treated for the “trauma” of the visible assault, rarely for the lingering inconsolable ruin to their personhood that is the essence of moral injury. Every victim of rape or assault by an authority figure confronts this reality in either immediate or delayed and lingering and confused form. This book, Spates & Callaway, brings long overdue attention to this highly nuanced and neglected aspect of moral injury. With gratitude and many thanks!!
Amy McCarty, Ph.D
Organizational Performance Analyst (retired) and former Non-Commissioned Officer, USMC
For years, my colleagues and I at Western Michigan University have worked with Dr. Spates on a wide range of issues facing military shareholders, and his leadership, knowledge, experience, education, and forward-thinking treatment strategies continue to benefit our military and veteran students to this day. This new work by Drs. Spates and Callaway continue this legacy of nuanced, highly focused, evidence-based academic output that offers the rare, in-depth research and analysis into the overlooked landscape of moral injury that should be a must for any specialist or care provider in the field.
Eric McConnell, MA
University Ombuds, WMU
As an Organizational Consultant, one thing I found particularly helpful was the application of Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory as a model for understanding the psychological drivers of moral injury. By examining how violations of the six moral foundations – care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, and liberty/oppression – can lead to moral injury, the authors provide insights into the many ways in which people may experience moral distress and conflict in their organizations.
Bill Redman, Ph.D
Organizational Consultant, Kintla, LLC
The Moral Injury Spectrum provides a thorough examination of how moral injury manifests in clinical and societal settings, supported by case reports from the authors and references to significant relevant historic events. The book delves into the broad relevance of moral injury across various life domains and discusses its incorporation into treatment through evidence-based practices. Early chapters explore foundational work by Jonathan Shay and Brett Litz, establishing a solid framework for understanding moral injury,
Lori Diaz Ryland, Ph.D
Clinical Psychologist, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Advanced Addictions Counselor
Among many positive features, the authors of this book render a valuable service by summoning readers to engage the reality that there does exist a spiritual component to the concept of moral injury. They do so beginning in the Introduction of their work by informing us that “moral injury” as a technical designation was first introduced in the context of war and combat by Jonathan Shay, a psychiatrist who worked with Vietnam War veterans. “In his 1994 book … Shay used the term to describe the psychological, emotional, and spiritual harm that can result from participating in, witnessing, or failing to prevent acts that violate one’s deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”
Given my life’s vocation, I have come to the studied conclusion that intentionally acquiring an understanding of moral injury is essential for contemporary religious organizations and for those involved therein.***
I say this because of my protracted experience that the church/parachurch world can serve as both a salve as well as a source for moral injury.
Tim W. Callaway
BA, MDiv, ThM, ThD Calgary, Canada
