Counterintuitive Fall 2024

Hovda says some of the Army’s best doctors implied that if soldiers were told they needed rest after concussions, it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers, or retired guys claiming disability way after the fact.

This statement above is an example of casual claim because Hovada stated that army doctors said that if soldiers were given a rest period after concussions. Old and new soldiers would take advantage of the suggestion after experiencing a concussion. This could also be considered a creditability claim because Hovada got the information from the best doctors in the army. Another claim the statement is attributive because it is not Hovada saying veterans and new coming soldiers would take advantage but the doctors are implying that the new treatment would start something.

Although, the NFL was given the same memo in the 1990s, and brain damage in boxers is even older news, so it doesn’t seem like it would take a neuroscientist—or the top medical brass of an Army that builds laser cannons—to figure out that if 25 mph punches to the head cause brain damage, IED blasts that hit at 330 mph probably do too.

This is an example of a quantitative claim because it uses numbers to make a statement instead of using them to state statistics.

But those reforms came seven years into the Iraq War, after Caleb and a million other soldiers were already home.

This is an example of an ethical claim because it could be interpreted as SEVEN YEARS being a long time to take proper precautions when soldiers get concussions. Millions of soldiers have already been home and are suffering complications after a non-treated concussion.

That they will never be the same—researchers “have tried hyperbaric oxygen, hundreds of clinical trials; we’re just failing miserably in trying to make a difference”—but that they should not panic. 

This is an example of a categorical claim because it names different approaches that researchers took to improve the problems when it comes to soldiers’ health after time serving. It could also be an example of a comparative claim since they could never be the same researchers they were who tried all those experiments.

The good news is, teleologically speaking, if we didn’t have the ability to recover from brain injury, we’d have ended up as somebody’s breakfast.”

This is an example of an illustrative claim because the author is getting his point across when stating brains are resilient. After all, if they were not then we would be dead.

“The human brain has an enormous amount of plasticity. New cells are born every day.

This is an example of a definitive claim because it defines what the brain has and how it produces new cells every day.

Claims Task – Section 13 (I was absent on 10/4 so I chose a section at random)

The amount of progress in Caleb’s six years of therapy has been frustrating for everyone. 

This is an Evaluative Claim. This sentence alone provides judgment on Caleb’s situation. As it says in the definition for evaluative claims, they are arguable. Another person may claim something different pertaining to Caleb’s progress in therapy. Claiming that something is frustrating is subjective because more than likely using that adjective to describe something leaves it open for argument.

 But ultimately, says Alain Brunet, vice president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and director of the Traumatic Stress Laboratory at McGill University in Canada, “we have reason to be reasonably optimistic. Psychotherapy does work for typical PTSD.” 

This is an example of an Attributive Claim and also a Credibility Claim. The author directly uses a claim from someone else making it attributive (more than likely because the author can not or just simply didn’t verify it). This is also a credibility claim because it identifies Alain Brunet (the man who made the claim) by his job position, which by the sound of it, makes him seem like a very credible source to pull a claim from.

The VA tends to favor cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy—whereby traumatic events are hashed out and rehashed until they become, theoretically, less consuming.

This is an example of a Definition Claim. This claim briefly defines cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy.

Some state VA offices also offer group therapy. For severe cases, the agency offers inpatient programs, one of which Caleb resided in for three months in 2010. The VA also endorses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), which is based on the theory that memories of traumatic events are, in effect, improperly stored, and tries to refile them by discussing those memories while providing visual or auditory stimulus.

This is an example of a Factual Claim. This claim provides examples of different types of therapies that the VA does in fact offer. This excerpt can also be looked at as a Definition Claim as well because it briefly defines EMDR therapy and what it is used for. 

To stay up to date on the latest advances in PTSD treatment, the VA collaborates with outside entities through its Intramural Research Program.

This is another example of a Factual Claim and also a Causal Claim. This sentence describes a circumstance that does exist (the VA’s collaboration with outside entities), making it factual. It demonstrates the elements of a causal claim as well because it shows a clear cause and effect relationship. Because the VA needs to stay up to date on PTSD treatment, the effect of this is collaboration with outside entities. 

Currently, the agency is funding 130 PTSD-related studies, from testing whether hypertension drugs might help to examining the effectiveness of meditation therapy, or providing veterans with trauma-sensitive service dogs, like Caleb’s.

The beginning of this excerpt demonstrates a Quantitative Claim. It provides a clear and concise number of PTSD related studies (130) that the agency is funding (also making it a Factual Claim). 

Up until 2006, the VA was spending $9.9 million, just 2.5 percent of its medical and prosthetic research budget, on PTSD studies. In 2009, funding was upped to $24.5 million. 

This is another example of a Quantitative Claim and Factual Claim. It provides two precise budgets that the VA was spending and a numerical statistic as well. Using these exact numbers and leaving nothing up for interpretation is what makes it a factual claim as well. 

But studies take a long time, and any resulting new directives take even longer to be implemented.

This can be viewed as a Comparative Claim. I believe this claim can be viewed as comparative because it compares the amount of time studies take which is long, to the amount of time new directives take to be implemented which is described as being even longer. 

I was Excerpt 10

• Factual Claim:
  • Explanation: This can be verified as being true, like a fact. The text accurately describes the pregnant woman who didn’t get much sleep and had to go a long distance to a clinic.
  • Example: “the closest major clinic is four hours away and she is eight and a half months pregnant and got three hours of sleep…”
• Evaluative Claim:
  • Explanation: When someone expresses their opinions about something, that is it. According to the text, Caleb first disapproved of Brannan’s posts but has since come to appreciate them.
  • Example: “Caleb was not amused the first time one of these posts went live. But now he’s glad she didn’t ask him his permission…”
• Illustrative Claim:
  • Explanation: This is comparable to a tale that clarifies a problem. In the text, Kateri’s experience at Olive Garden, where she became extremely distressed for no apparent reason, is used to illustrate how distressing PTSD can be.
  • Example: “Kateri tells the story of how her family was at Olive Garden when she started sobbing into her Zuppa Toscana. There was no visible reason for it…”
• Causal Claim:
  • Explanation: It demonstrates the chain of events. The book mentions how episodes and fears might be brought on by the smell of death.
  • Example: “Another woman’s husband had a service dog die in the night, and the death smell in the morning triggered an episode…”
• Comparative Claim:
  • Explanation: This is a comparison of several things or circumstances. The passage contrasts how vigilant various characters are, demonstrating that some are more vigilant than others.
  • Example: ““I am now more hypervigilant than my husband,” volunteer Kateri Peterson posts to her Facebook page…”
• Ethical or Moral Claim:
  • Explanation: It has to do with what’s fair or good vs what’s right or bad. The text makes the argument that it is unfair if a veteran doesn’t receive the assistance promised after serving the nation.
  • Example: “he fought for his fucking country and they promised they wouldn’t abandon him and he swears to God he will have to kill himself if the VA doesn’t put him in with the other soldiers…”

pt 10

• An illustrative claim is demonstrated in the following portion of the text:
• “Just the general overwhelmingness of her distress, of that awful overstimulating hypervigilance, the sort of thing you develop sometimes when you live with someone who looks out the living room window for danger literally hundreds of times a day, or who goes from room to room, room to room, over and over to make sure everyone in each one is still alive”
• This claim takes a situation and illustrates an alternate scenario, in this case that is the example of a feeling you may get living with someone with extreme paranoia. This is used to show how this veteran’s wife felt second hand stress, using this scenario to explain the situation further. 

• So she doesn’t. If she’s not saving lives on the phone or blogging, she’s offering support via Facebook, where thousands of Family of a Vet users and nearly 500 FOV volunteers congregate and commiserate. 
• This is a numerical claim, it is being utilized to show how many people are currently involved in the veteran support group, and also allows the commonality of the issue to be displayed. You also see a credibility claim be instilled in this quote when discussing Brennan’s efforts she puts into the support group, highlighting her position. 

•  Another woman’s husband had a service dog die in the night, and the death smell in the morning triggered an episode she worries will end in him hurting himself or someone else if she doesn’t get him into a VA hospital, and the closest major clinic is four hours away and she is eight and a half months pregnant and got three hours of sleep, and the clinic’s website says its case manager position for veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan is currently unstaffed, anyway.
• One of the first types of claims you see is an attributive claim, the phrase beginning with “Another womans’ ‘ opened up the presentation to display someone else’s claim and story. An ethical or moral claim is presented in the quote when they discuss the understaffed nature of the hospital, placing judgment on the nature of the situation at hand.
• Kateri’s eight-year-old son now also counts the exits in new spaces he enters, points them out to his loved ones, keeps a mental map of them at the ready, until war or fire fails to break out, and everyone is safely back home
• Of all the illustrative claims you see, this one shows very well how easily even children can pick up on mannerisms of PTSD from family members. Painting this scenario allows people to see the anxiety in a small child over a floorplan of any public space, really highlighting the severity of second hand PTSD.

“It’s kind of hard to understand Caleb’s injuries. Even doctors can’t say for sure
exactly why he has flashbacks, why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among
the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops t need to be scanned
for snipers.”

This is an Evaluative Claim because it involves judgment of everyones perception of Caleb’s injuries. It begins with what seems to be like one person announcing they can’t understand Caleb’s injuries but the author then proceeds to mention the viewpoint of the doctors.Throughout the rest of the paragraph the author continues to use evaluative claims

“Whatever is happening to Caleb, it’s as old as war itself. The ancient historian Herodotus told of Greeks being honorably dismissed for being “out of heart” and “unwilling to encounter danger.” Civil War doctors, who couldn’t think of any other thing that might be unpleasant about fighting the Civil War but homesickness, diagnosed thousands with “nostalgia.” Later, it was deemed “irritable heart.” In World War I it was called “shell shock.” In World War II, “battle fatigue.” It wasn’t an official diagnosis until 1980, when Post Traumatic Stress Disorder made its debut in psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, uniting a flood of Vietnam vets suffering persistent psych issues with traumatized civilians—previously assigned labels like “accident neurosis” and “post-rape syndrome”—onto the same page of the DSM-III.“

This section is an Illustrative Claim. The author uses examples of warrior mental heath diagnosis during war time to better help the reader understand the severity of Caleb’s condition. Also the use of the war time examples offer the reader a chance to “evoke sympathy” , because of ones ability to even try and imagine the mental damage inflicted during those war times.

“But whatever people have called it, they haven’t been likely to grasp or respect it. In 1943, when Lt. General George S. Patton met an American soldier at an Italian hospital recovering from “nerves,” Patton slapped him and called him a coward. In 2006, the British Ministry of Defence pardoned some 300 soldiers who had been executed for cowardice and desertion during World War I, having concluded that many were probably just crippled by PTSD.“

This entire section is a Factual Claim. The author describes historical events in attempt to bolster the credibility of their beliefs.

This passage is mainly discussing the impact of trauma on the behavior and well-being of children, specifically in the context of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and Holocaust survivors. These claims have four categories.

The first one it’s Children of veterans with PTSD and Holocaust survivors may exhibit signs of secondary trauma or psychological distress. This claim her main point is recommending for children who have parents or grandparents who have experienced significant trauma, has war or the Holocaust, may themselves show signs of trauma or emotional distress. The passage references studies conducted on the children of American World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans, as well as the children of Holocaust survivors, to support this issue. These studies report elevated hostility scores, psychiatric treatment needs, difficulties in establishing friendships, and other symptoms in the children.

The second claim and is the behavior of children in traumatic situations may mirror the behavior of their traumatized parents or caregivers. The passage implies that children defined to traumatic situations may imitate or “mirror” the behavior of their traumatized parents. For example, it suggests that Katie, a young girl mentioned in the passage, mimics her father’s overreacting and yelling, which are likely manifestations of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

The third case and is the intergenerational transmission of trauma may not always be supported by rigorous scientific evidence,like we can see in the paragraph is representing a counterclaim by referring to a 2003 meta-analysis conducted by Dutch and Israeli researchers. This meta-analysis found no evidence for the intergenerational transmission of trauma when more rigorous controls were applied. In other words, it suggests that the relationship between trauma experienced by parents or grandparents and the psychological well-being of their descendants may not be as straightforward as previously thought.

The last issue and is the differences in coping mechanisms and resources may affect the transmission of trauma across generations. The passage raises the possibility that differences in the coping mechanisms and support networks available to Holocaust survivors compared to veterans may explain varying outcomes in their descendants. It suggests that Holocaust survivors had more resources, wider family and community support, and were not expected to “man up and get over it” as much as veterans. This difference in external support may influence the impact of trauma on subsequent generations.

In conclusion to recap everything the passage presents a complex and brief picture about of how trauma may affect children and grandchildren of individuals who have experienced traumatic events. It also opens the eyes and attention on both evidence suggesting a potential impact on the well-being of descendants and the challenges of establishing a clear causal link between the trauma experienced by parents or grandparents and the behavior and mental health of their progeny.

* “It’s hard to understand Caleb’s injuries”

This is an evaluative claim, claiming that Caleb’s injuries are hard to understand. I wanted to include “Caleb’s injuries” as its own separate claim but I was unsure what kind of claim it would be. But it is claiming that Caleb has injuries and that they are his but I was worried I was over-evaluating.

* “Even Doctors can’t say for sure why he has flashbacks”

This claim is a credibility claim because it uses a doctors credentials and ideas to help describe the difficulty surrounding Caleb’s condition.

* “Why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among
the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned
for snipers”

This is an illustrative claim used to evoke emotion in us by describing a troubling event Caleb went through.

* “They don’t know exactly why”

This is an attributive claim using somebody else(doctors) to express the idea.

* “why especially that time he picked up the pieces of Baghdad bombing victims and that
lady who appeared to have thrown herself on top of her child to save him only to find the child dead underneath torments him when he’s sleeping, and sometimes awake.”

This is another illustrative claim used to make us sympathetic for Caleb and his situation. It describes a scene no one wants to see in order to do this.

* “They don’t know”

This is another attributive claim used to describe a comparative idea”

* “why some other guys in his unit who did and saw the same stuff that Caleb did and saw are fine but Caleb is so sensitive to light”

This is a comparative claim that takes into account the experiences and mental states of other soldiers compared to Caleb.