Counterintuitive Fall 2024

Passage 16

“In 2009, it was Hovda who delivered the Pentagon the recommendation that because multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury”

• Causal claim. 
• Evaluative claim
• This quote fits in with being an evaluative claim because of how Hovda feels that the situation should be handled. This claim is also causal because of how concussions are stated as potentially causing long-term injury 

“concussions need time to heal”

• Recommendation claim. 
• Factual claim.
• This claim is a statement that downtime is needed after a concussion. It can also be construed as a recommendation to the recipient. 

“Hovda says some of the Army’s best doctors implied that if soldiers were told they needed rest after concussions”

• Attributive claim
• The relaying of information by a named author to unnamed ones distances the author from the statement through a lens. This attributive claim is greatly utilized by Hovda to get an idea of what the government thought of concussions and their effects prior to the protocol reforms.

“If 25 mph punches to the head cause brain damage, IED blasts that hit at 330 mph probably do too.”

• Illustrative claim
• Causal claim
• This statement is illustrative because it uses descriptive language to compare two ways brain damage can occur. The causal aspect also comes from how it shows that both a punch to the head causes brain damage and so can an explosion.

“These days, there are MRIs in theater, assessments after blasts, mandatory rest periods after a concussion”

• Factual claim
• This claim is stating how that there are now multiple ways that concussions can be dealt with after the reforms. These new implementations are great for concussions as they allow for greater detection and prevention of PTSD.

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

• Quantitative claim
• The statement is quantitative because it mentions the millions of PTSD sufferers and how it took several years for concussion reforms to be implemented in the military and those men suffering have already left the military. 

“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”

• Attributive claim
• The author of the article passes on this statement to unnamed researchers to put out how there are multiple ways that treatments are being researched. 

“There’s good rehabilitation strategies: learn what your deficits are, learn that you’re not going crazy, that you just can’t do what you used to do,” 

• Evaluative claim
• This quote is a researcher explaining how specific strategies can be undertaken to help the sufferer. Learning one’s deficits is important to identify how problems can be avoided and this is especially great in dealing with PTSD symptoms.

 “Daddy will be really happy,” she told the German shepherd sitting on her kitchen floor. “Of course, he’s too cranky to be happy about anything, and he’ll be mad because Katie won’t eat it because I spent all day makin’ it and the only thing she wants to eat right now is pancakes.”

This is an example of an evaluative claim because it involves characteristics of Caleb from Brannan stating that he is cranky and upset that Katie won’t eat the lasagna that Brannan made for them. Katie only wants to eat pancakes.

 Later, she reminds me that Lasagna Night can come apart in an instant, if Caleb has a “bad PTSD moment.” These are supposed to be her easy months, she sighs, April and May and June, before the anniversaries of his worst firefights—many of them in Ramadi; a lot of bad things happened in Ramadi—exacerbate his flashbacks and nightmares. That’s usually September through January, the “really bad” months, whereas in the spring, she gets a bit of “vacation,” time to clean up the house and catch up on work, rest.

This is an example of comparative claim because it is comparing Caleb’s PTSD months as April May and June are easy months for her before Caleb’s anniversaries of his worst firefights that are in Ramadi but September through January are bad months, but it gets easy on her during the spring.

She used to ask Caleb what was wrong, why he was coiled so tight and poisonous, screaming and yelling at everybody.

This statement is an analogy claim and a categorical claim because it’s describing how he is like with the symptoms of PTSD by yelling at everyone.

And then she’ll just sit and listen while he says he cannot get it out of his head, about how if he had caught that fucking sniper, that enemy sniper he’d been trying to get, that’d been following them around, terrorizing their unit, if he’d have managed to kill him like he was supposed to, then the sniper wouldn’t have gotten off the shot that killed his buddy.

This is an example of categorical claim and factual because Caleb can’t get the thought of not being able to kill the sniper that killed his friend. This is factual because if he were able to pull it off, he wouldn’t have PTSD.

PTSD is defined as post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD can be found in many people that have gone through traumatic experiences throughout life. PTSD can be found mostly in people that work in the occupations of first responders and or the military. Many symptoms can be explained to run co a hand with PTSD and they are vivid nightmares, flackbacks to the traumatic event, and intense destress. After reading this article I have learned a lot about PTSD. 

Being assigned excerpt eleven there were many claims that the author expressed. For an example in the text the author states, “sometimes, at bedtime, she asks her mom to pray with her that her teacher will like her. Once, she asked Brannan to take her to a hypnotist, so he could use his powers to turn her into a good girl.” The claim of this quote would be that Katie is nervous of what her teacher thinks of her and wants her mother to send her to a professional (a hypnotist), in order for her to be on her best behavior. 
Another example of a claim that the author expresses in excerpt eleven is followed by the text of the author stating “last fall, she switched Katie to a different school, where she hopes more understanding will lead to less anxiety.” The authors claim for this example of the text was for Brannan, Katies mother, to send her daughter to a different school in high hopes that her daughter would express less anxiety then she had at her previous school she attended. I believe that it is pretty sad that someone would have to go through the struggles of switching schools because of a mental illness, no matter what the mental illness is. These are two great claims that the author expresses in the excerpt of the text.

Section 14

James was so anxious and so suicidal that he couldn’t even muster the self-preservation to get into inpatient treatment.

The first claim is this excerpt is an Evaluative Claim and talks about how James is anxious and suicidal. The author is exploring the quality and characteristics of James’ mood, which can both be argued, but also supported by other pieces of evidence. The second claim is a Casual Claim, which has to do with a cause and effect. In this example, the cause is James’ anxiousness and suicidal tendencies, and the effect is his inability to go into treatment. The author is telling us that James’ current mental state is whats causing him to not take any action.

They’d “assumed the normal positions,” she with her back to the restaurant, he facing it so he could monitor everyone, and suddenly, a server dropped a tray out of her periphery, setting her circulatory system off at a million miles a minute. 

The first claim on this excerpt comes in the first sentence, “They’d ‘assumed the normal positions…'” The author is making an Attributive Claim. The author can not confirm if everyone was in the “normal positions” or not. He is absolutely making the claim that everyone was in their normal positions, but he is distancing himself from the claim by quoting the wife, making it clear that he cannot confirm if they actually were. The second claim used is a Comparative claim, and it occurs when the author says, “setting her circulatory system off at a million miles a minute. ” This is a Comparative claim because it is comparing Kateri’s normal state of her circulatory system to her current one. There is a hierarchy in this claim where her normal state is more relaxed and calm, and her state at the moment because tense and uncontrolled.

“When you’ve become hypervigilant, the place you are most functional is on the battlefield,” McGill’s Brunet explains. Caleb, despite his injuries and his admission that war was pretty excruciatingly awful, told me he wishes he could go back. Kateri, despite wishing her system hadn’t learned to run at a heightened state, at this point is like a drug addict, needing stimulation to maintain it. For the first time since Iraq, her husband felt at peace, and was able to enjoy a steak dinner with his wife. “He just sat there,” Kateri says. His normalcy “was so distressing to me that I wanted to stab him.”

This excerpt contains many examples of more Attributive claims. The author is using examples of conversations he’s had with with the people he’s quoting to make his claim.

Because she also helps thousands of other people—measured by website and social-media interactions—through Family of a Vet

-This can be seen as a numerical claim as she speaks of helping thousands of other people through a website and social media

Brannan founded the organization in 2007, after panicked Googling led her to the website of Vietnam Veteran Wives (VVW) when Caleb returned from his second tour.

-This could be seen as a evaluative claim as it talks of her googling the web and finding a veteran wives website for when Caleb returned from his second tour

 Life after the first tour had been pretty normal

-this is a factual claim as its saying his state of behavior is pretty normal

“Things were a little…off,” Caleb was edgy, distant, but he did not forget entire conversations minutes later

-This can be an ethical or moral claim as it speaks of his behavior being edgy and distant but also not forgetting conversations like other vets

Brannan was in a terrible place, she says—until she talked to Danna Hughes, founder of VVW

-this is a casual claim as it speaks of how Brennan was in a terrible place until she found the VVW founder

They want to help and they want to understand, so I just have to keep going and educating.”

-This is a factual claim because she talks about how she has to keep educating ptsd vets to help them through their pain

PTSD has many claims just by the way it is formed. It can cause many different behaviors and can have a long-lasting effect on anyone in a family with a member with PTSD.

An example of this is in the article, Is PTSD Contiguous, it mentions that “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 to hear Caleb hollering from his room,” This is a Categorical claim because Katie is picking up on the behavior in school that her dad is doing at home and therefore causes her to act up because Katie is already affected by her dad’s behavior.

Another example stated in the text, Is PTSD Contagious, “René Robi­chaux, social-work programs manager for US Army Medical Command, concedes that “in a family system, every member of that system is going to be impacted, most often in a negative way, by mental-health issues.””  This is an Evaluative claim because it mentions in the text that this is evidence based on based on expertise, and authority because it shows the examples that it causes the whole family to be affected.

An important statement shows in the article Is PTSD Contagious, “That was the impetus for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, which since 2005 has added 70 therapists to military installations around the country. Mostly what the program provides is couples’ counseling. Children are “usually not” treated, but when necessary, referred to child psychiatrists—of which the Army has 31.” This is a moral claim because it has shown the supports that people get for having military family members. However, Children are not getting enough support for therapy.

An example showing that children may not get enough support is in the article Is PTSD Contagious, “Brannan sent Katie to the school therapist, once. She hasn’t seen any other therapist, or a therapist trained to deal with PTSD—Brannan knows what a difference that makes, since the volunteer therapist she tried briefly herself spent more time asking her to explain a “bad PTSD day” than how Caleb’s symptoms were affecting the family.” This is also Ethical claim because it states that Katie did not get enough support from her school therapist, and it did not really help out Katie that much when she saw the therapist.

One last reason is families with Veterans tend to end up having their families fall apart. A quote from the article Is PTSD Contagious states that, “In the wake of Vietnam, 38 percent of marriages failed within the first six months of a veteran’s return stateside; the divorce rate was twice as high for vets with PTSD as for those without.” This is a Factual claim because it shows that Veterans with PTSD have a higher divorce rate than Veterans without PTSD because in the text it states that more marriages failed because of the Trama that was caused on the families.

“She saw her husband through peripheral neuropathy, PTSD, prison, Agent Orange-linked disease, saw her son suffer living with a ball of anxiety and succumbing to drugs, and she doesn’t regret one day.”

This quotes is Evaluative claim because she says she saw her husband and son go through these things and she still continued to love them. There is evidence in this claim beside what she went through and what she saw because it is her word. So this quote has no real data or research and is based off what she saw and experienced. She is showing what real love is and how nothing can brake that when it is true love. This claim involves judgment by the person traumas and events they went through.

“With a half million disability cases stuck in a VA backlog, and an estimated 25 percent of Iraq/Afghanistan troops with PTSD not seeking treatment”

This quote is a Factual claim because of the data that is in the quote. The facts in this quote is the half million disability cases that are stuck in the VA because of how backed up the are and how hard it is to get into the VA. Thousands of troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have come back with disability but have had hard time trying to get this treated. A lot of troops also suffer from PTSD after returning from these locations. This uses facts and data to support the claim

“If they make an appointment at the VA and can’t get in for several weeks, how do they eat, they want to know, in the meantime.”

This quote is a ethical or moral claim because in this claim it talks about their family’s and expresses ethical judgment. This claim is relating if they cant get help from the vet then what are they going to do because everything else has fallen apart. This happens to a lot of troops when the return because they suffer from some disability that eventually gets bad and destroyers their life and their family members too. So if they get refused help where do they go to get help and not end up homeless or do anything worse. This uses emotions and ethical judgment to support this claim.

section 11- PTSD assignment

It’s to help kids like that that Brannan and her volunteers put together an informational packet on secondary trauma for parents to give to teachers, explaining their battle-worthy idiosyncrasies and sensory-processing sensitivities. They’re common enough problems that the Department of Health and Human Services got in touch with Brannan about distributing the packet more widely.

The author uses a casual claim since the kids have sensitivities the volunteers pit together the secondary trauma packets to be filled out. This is a cause-and-effect circumstance making this the proper claim.

Brannan gave the packet to Katie’s kindergarten teacher, but thinks the teacher just saw it as an excuse for bad behavior. Last fall, she switched Katie to a different school, where she hopes more understanding will lead to less anxiety. Though Brannan hopes Katie will come out of childhood healthy, she still says, “She’s not a normal kid. She does things, and says things. She’s a grown-up in a six-year-old’s body in a lot of ways.”

The author uses an attributive claim because the author is passing along what Brannan said. I also see an ethical/moral claim here when she says, “she hopes more understanding…” she is blaming the schools lack of understanding for adding to her daughter’s anxiety.

She certainly looks like a normal kid when she comes down from her room dressed for tap class.

The author uses a comparative claim here when she compares Katie to a normal kid when she is dressed for dance class.

 In a black leotard, pink tights, and shiny black tap shoes, she looks sweet as pie.

The author uses an illustrative claim when describing what Katie looks like to make us sympathize that she is not a normal kid but tries looks like one. I also see an analogy claim here when she says she looks “sweet as pie,” because she is trying to rank her sweetness on a high level by comparing her to the pie.

“One time, a bad guy in Iraq had a knife and my dad killed him,” she says, apropos of nothing.

The author uses another attributive claim here when they are passing along what Brannan has told her about the man in Iraq.

“Katie Vines.” Brannan is stern but impeccably patient. She doesn’t know why Katie adapted this story about confiscating a weapon from an insurgent into a story about bloodshed, but she isn’t too happy about it. That kind of small talk recently ruined a birthday party one of her classmates was having at Chick-fil-A. Brannan and Katie have a talk, again, about inappropriate conversation. Katie is sorry—God, is she sorry, you can see it in her face and guilty shoulders, but she seems to feel like she can’t help it. Sometimes, at bedtime, she asks her mom to pray with her that her teacher will like her. Once, she asked Brannan to take her to a hypnotist, so he could use his powers to turn her into a good girl.

An evaluative claim is used here when the author refers to Brannan being impeccably patient because she is analyzing the situation and imputing her own judgement. I also see an illustrative claim when the author is describing Katies guilty face and shoulders after apologizing for her behavior to let us sympathize for her.

“Some hypotheses for why PTSD only tortures some trauma victims blame it on unhappily coded proteins, or a misbehaving amygdala. Family history, or maybe previous trauma.”

This quote is an evaluation claim. “Some hypotheses” would possibly refer to expert evaluations on PTSD. There is no definitive evidence in the claim but it infers that the topic has been researched and data was drawn from the studies. Because of this, the author is stating that based on the evaluation of research done, it is presumed that the causes for PTSD are what was listed.

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

This is an ethical or moral claim. In the quote, it is inferring that Brennan has received little to no sympathy compared the Caleb. This claim is comparing the amount of sympathy of each individual on the basis of how others would reflect on their situations. In doing so, it is using emotions and ethics of others to support in the claim

“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”

This quote is a factual claim. It provides a timeline and specific place in which the term and definition of PTSD was officially diagnosed. Though throughout the article, the terms for what PTSD was known as has changed, the signs and definitions were always the same. Yet the official diagnosis and term were not introduced until 1980.