Beyond PTSD: A Multi-Case Study Exploring Identity, Moral Injury, and Spiritual Injury

This multi-case study explored Swedish military veterans’ experiences related to posttraumatic stress disorder, moral injury, and spiritual injury. Specifically, the present study focused on 4 domains (health care, veteran’s administration, moral conflicts and injuries, and identities and existential dimensions) that emerged in participants’ meaning making as they navigated everyday life. While these domains are distinct from each other, results show health care experiences are typically embedded within veteran’s administration, while at times, moral injury and/or spiritual injury appear to be linked to identities and existential dimensions. Questions of identity (e.g., who am I?), morality (e.g., how do I become good?), and spirituality (e.g., does a higher being cause people to suffer?) are not pathological by nature, but can be viewed as fundamental to an individual’s raison d’etre.