Lexington Community Education presents: Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming: An Evening with Dr. Jonathan Shay

In his follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier’s homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life. Seamlessly combining important psychological work and brilliant literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions, Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran’s experience and one of the world’s greatest classics. 

For 20 years Jonathan Shay was a staff psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, Boston, where his only patients were combat veterans with sever psychological injuries. He retired from clinical work in May, 2008 to devoted himself full time to preventive psychiatry in military organizations—what he calls his “missionary work.”  He has been a MacArthur Fellow since January, 2008. He is the author of Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994) and of Odysseus in America:Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002). The latter has a forward authored jointly by US Senators John McCain and Max Cleland.  Dr. Shay has delivered a number of high profile named lectures in classics over the years, for example, The Eitner Lecture in Classics at Stanford University. The title was “Agamemnon, Adhilles, Odysseus: Homer on Military Leadership".

The cost of this evening's event is $10.00.  

Pre-registration, using a VISA or MasterCard,  is strongly recommended by contacting Lexington Community Education at 781 862 8043.