Counterintuitive Fall 2024

1. Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.
   1. This claim is factual, analogical and categorical.
   2. It is factual because it states that Brannan has never been to war. This must connect to the main idea.
   3. It is analogical because Brannan’s skills are being compared to ones of a warrior.
   4. It is categorical since the adjectives like hyper-awareness and hypervigilance are used. This ties into how PTSD belongs to a category of behaviors.

2. Hypervigilance sounds innocuous, but it is in fact exhaustingly distressing, a conditioned response to life-threatening situations.
   1. There are factual claims and evaluative claims in this sentence.
   2. The facts come from when facts are stated such as when they explained that hypervigilance is exhausting and and conditioned response to threatening situations.
   3. The evaluative claim comes from the first part of the sentence. It is an opinion and can be argued but we can suppose it could be backed up by information.

3. When we hear Caleb pulling back in the driveway, we jump up and grab their strings, plunging the living room back into its usual necessary darkness.
   1. This is a causal claim.
   2. The fact that Caleb has PTSD causes his family to have to create a specific environment to live in otherwise he gets triggered by the trauma. 

4. Granted, diagnosing PTSD is a tricky thing. 
   1. This could be a definition or evaluative claim depending on how it is looked at. 
   2. It is defining the claim that PTSD is tricky, but it could be evaluative since diagnosing PTSD could be less tricky in other instances.

5. When Caleb was finally screened for the severity of his TBI, Brannan says he got the second-worst score in the whole 18-county Gulf Coast VA system, which serves more than 50,000 veterans.
   1. This is an Evaluative Numerical Claim.
   2. The amount and severity of the TBI was evaluated and numerically compared to other cases which showed the severity of Caleb’s TBI. This is a claim made from other numerical information.

6. “Everyone” includes children. Which is something Brannan and Caleb lose not a little sleep over, since they’ve got a six-year-old in the house.
   1. This is categorical since “everyone” is being clumped into the entire household and not just Caleb who has PTSD or even his wife. This is affecting everyone, even their daughter. 

7. Brannan and Katie’s teacher have conferenced about Katie’s behavior many times. Brannan’s not surprised she’s picked up overreacting and yelling—you don’t have to be at the Vines residence for too long…
   1. This is a comparative claim.
   2. Caleb’s behavior in the house is rubbing off on Katie shaping her behavior to be similar even though she does not have PTSD.
   3. Caleb’s behavior is being compared to how Katie is now acting at school because this is what she is learning is okay at home, though she does not understand that Caleb has a disorder rather than associating this behavior to be normal.

“Brannan and Caleb can be tense with their own agitation, and tense about each other’s”

-This claim implies that not only Caleb has become aware and conscious of his possible reactions, but it also affects Brannan’s as well.

-Brannan has developed awareness of her stresses towards Caleb’s behavior and adapted to it, resulting in distress and emotional exhaustion.

“Caleb screaming at Brannan because she’s just woken him up from a nightmare, after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging”

-This claim implies that contagiousness of PTSD may be spread not by memories and flashbacks, but in other ways, such as behaving and habitually responding to a possible flashback.

-This method of keeping a safe distance may cause other symptoms of PTSD; the physical comfort of both partners is crucial, yet both may be subconsciously aware and in distress of a possible flight or fight reaction to sudden movements, sounds, or even silence.

“Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”

-This claim says that the symptoms of PTSD may be spread through loved ones.

-The flashbacks and memories cannot be spread; however, Brannan may show symptoms such as constantly looking over her shoulder or being more aware of sudden movements or sounds. This may cause distress, as we may make such movements without knowing it.

“She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up.”

-This claim says that many wives of soldiers have been abused due to the soldier’s agitation and flashback reactions, whether it is intentional or not.

-Caleb and Brannan love and support each other in tough times when dealing with PTSD. With the help of a support pet, comfort and support is crucial for PTSD symptoms at the cost of developing symptoms of PTSD.

“Secondary traumatic stress has been documented in the spouses of veterans with PTSD from Vietnam.”

• This is a factual claim as the word “documented” brings forth the presence of research and that this was not a claim just pulled from thin air

“In one study, the incidence of secondary trauma in wives of Croatian war vets with PTSD was 30 percent.”

• Another factual claim about secondary PTSD. The mention of a study and the 30% make this claim set in stone and that it isn’t really arguable. 
• The first portion of this paragraph are statistics of how many spouses of war veterans come to develop secondary PTSD. This makes a connecting line of PTSD and war, basically showing how it is not surprising how many veterans come back home with PTSD from what they have endured. 
• These factual claims also bring forth the idea of how PTSD can be “spread” from one person to another, more so in partners as they have that close proximity to where one person can in fact begin to have those same symptoms.

“Trauma is really not something that happens to an individual.”

• This is an evaluative claim made by a clinical psychologist and psychology professor. Her claim is supported by her credibility as many would feel she has the knowledge of the brain and how mental illnesses like this work. 
• However, this can still be argued by those who suffer from PTSD, someone could argue that it does feel as though it just happens. There have been instances where someone may not even be able to pinpoint a certain time or experience that may have led to them having PTSD. 

“Trauma is a contagious disease; it affects everyone that has close contact with a traumatized person”

• An evaluative claim that can be argued. There can be people that have family members or friends who suffer from PTSD and are not once affected by that person’s own mental illness. 
• Some sufferers of PTSD may be good at hiding how they feel, how they act, or how they think about certain situations, so not everyone who may be close to someone who has PTSD gets affected by that person. 

‘But she and warrior skills “

• claiming that she is very skillful
• Saying that’s she might be a warrior
• Maybe the cause of her PTSD

“Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”

• Suggested that Caleb has PTSD
• That PTSD can be transferred 
• Caleb might the cause of her PTSD

“after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging—”

• Caleb has terrible nightmares 
• He might be harmful to himself or Brannan
• Does want brannan to get hurt even though he is mad at her for waking him up 

1. Brannan Vines has never been to war, but her husband, Caleb, was sent to Iraq twice, where he served in the infantry as a designated marksman
   • This sentence contains a series of factual claims. Brannan could prove never being to war by accounting for her whereabouts with evidence and comparing the evidence to the known time and location of various wars. Caleb can be proven to be her husband by presenting documentation of their wedding, and the U.S. would likely have recorded Caleb’s service as a marksman.
   • The claim is meant to support the idea that PTSD is contagious. The author’s logic is that Caleb contracted PTSD while at war and passed it to Brannan who had never been to war. The problem with the logic is that while PTSD is often associated with war it can have alternative causes.
   • The use of consistent factual claims in the article is a technique to give the author’s words more credibility. With frequent provable claims readers may grow complacent and criticize the article less than it deserves.

2. It’s hard to say, with the lack of definitive tests for the former, undertesting for the latter, underreporting, under or over-misdiagnosing of both.

• In this sentence the author uses a pair of evaluative claims. The author has evaluated PTSD as difficult to diagnose making the exact number “hard to say,”. The tests for PTSD have also be evaluated as non-definitive by the author. The next two claims can be viewed as a mix of evaluative, quantitative, and recommendation claims. The author, Mac McClelland, has evaluated the testing and diagnosing of PTSD and traumatic brain injury as an insufficient number. McClelland could be said to be recommending that the testing and diagnoses should be a different quantity.

• The claims are meant to undermine criticism of the article by suggesting that too little data on the subject is available. If PTSD and traumatic brain injuries are not easy to diagnose then the ailments could be lacking definition. If readers believe these afflictions are nebulous concepts definite criticism will elude the author.

• Presenting these maladies to seem less defined seems to undermine the author’s point. If they lack definition, then why attempt to define their features? This sentence also contains an interesting phrasing by the author when she states that diagnoses for PTSD or traumatic brain injuries could be under or over-misdiagnosed. Is there an amount of misdiagnosing that is necessary, and we aren’t reaching that number?

3. And as slippery as all that is, even less understood is the collateral damage, to families, to schools, to society—emotional and fiscal costs borne long after the war is over.

• The author again begins with an evaluative claim. The claims are slippery because they paint the picture of a hazy topic. One that cannot be grasped easily due to a lack of definition. This is followed by a quantitative claim. The damage caused by these disorders is less well understood than the disorders themselves, and the damage is borne long after the war.

• These claims make the situation relatable for the reader. Most citizens never participate in war, but bringing it home will be easier to relate with for the reader.

“Brannen Vines has never been to war”

– The woman in the article, Brannen Vines, has never been to war before in her life.

– This is the first sentence in the whole article and the author felt that it is important to tell the reader.

-By stating that Brannen has never been to war, this shows from the start that she should not suffer from PTSD

“Granted, diagnosing PTSD is a tricky thing”

– How does the person who wrote the article know this? Do they have PTSD?

– Saying it is tricky sounds like the author doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannen to catch his symptoms.

– This is a fact that Caleb returned home from the war in 2006.

– This statement does not give a reason on to why it could be enough time to catch the symptoms.

“You can hear the cat padding around. The air conditioner whooshes, a clock ticks.

– This implies that the house is extremely quiet.

– This is not normal for a house with a family living in it. A house with a family should be louder.

“You can’t see Caleb’s other wound, either.”

• Factual claim. It asserts that Caleb’s “other wound” cannot be seen, as it is an internal wound.
• We’re also being given a categorical claim. In the context, Caleb’s traumatic brain injury is being grouped with his PTSD as being a wound as well.
• It may seem hard to notice, but, through the phrase “you can’t see,” the writer is also implicitly making an ethical claim. Caleb’s struggles with PTSD–as well as with the effects of his many concussions–have went with sympathy from so few people. In short, we should feel sorry from him.

“It’s called traumatic brain injury, or TBI, from multiple concussions.”

• Definition claim. The writer is attributing this definition to Caleb’s “other wound.”
• Causal claim. TBI is caused from multiple concussions.

“In two tours, he was in at least 20 explosions—IEDs, vehicle-borne IEDs, RPGs.”

• Factual claim. The number of explosions as well as expeditions Caleb was in could be quantified. The type of weapons used against him were also specified.
• This claim also bolsters support for the claim that he has TBI.

“But there’s still a lot about brain damage that doctors, much less civilians, don’t understand.”

• An evaluative claim about the knowledge of doctors and civilians regarding brain damage;
• Somewhat irrelevant to the subject of the paragraph.

“Unlike PTSD, secondary traumatic stress doesn’t have its own entry in the DSM, though the manual does take note of it, as do many peer-reviewed studies and the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

• Comparative claim. Secondary traumatic stress is being compared to PTSD as the much-lesser-acknowledged condition.
• It also makes the factual claim that the condition is at least noted by the manual and peer-reviewed studies.

“Symptoms start at depression and alienation, including the ‘compassion fatigue’ suffered by social workers and trauma counselors.”

• Categorical claim. Groups depression, alienation, and “compassion fatigue” as symptoms of secondary traumatic stress.

“If sympathy for Caleb is a little lacking, you can imagine what little understanding exists for Brannan.”

• One of the most important evaluative claims in this article; PTSD is a condition recognized by many, but those who suffer secondary traumatic stress receive are understood by few and thus feel at fault and alienated.
• Also a comparative claim because it compares the degree of sympathy given to Caleb to that which has been given to Brannan.
• The phrase, “You can imagine,” which asks the reader to put themselves in the place of Brennan, is likely to garner more empathy from the readers.