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The prisoner of war (POW) is a unique challenge to the therapist. This ex-service individual with recognized disabilities has had the traumatic experience of being captured and held prisoner during an international conflict. In providing therapy to these traumatized individuals, it is crucial for the therapist to understand that the POW experience is unique.
The government describes a prisoner of war as a "person who, while serving in the active military service, was forcibly detained or interned in the line of duty by an enemy government or its agents or a hostile force during a period of war, and in certain circumstances during peacetime periods" (EX-POW Bulletin, 1984).
A more informal definition is "a soldier of misfortune." Fighting men declare it is neither dishonorable nor heroic to be taken prisoner. Usually, capture is accidental and comes as a complete surprise. It is nearly always painful and may prove fatal. Soldiers speak of "the fortunes of war"; in combat, some men are unlucky and become POWs (United States Department of Defense, 1955).
The question of luck and the absence of self-determination are themes that appear continually in the literature on the prisoner of war experience. The treatment and conditions vary throughout history and are affected by factors such as economic and logistical capacities of captors; the captors' varying concept of the value of life; consideration of reprisal as "legitimate" activity; climate and geography; adherence to or rejection of international covenants on human rights; and the whim of individual captors. The nature of capture and internment can vary within a war, within a particular theater of operations, between camps and even, for the individual POW, between guards.
Americans as POWs have faced many tribulations. Although this discussion is concerned primarily with the aftereffects of imprisonment and the challenges faced by the therapist, it is also important to understand some of the elements of the POW experience. It is crucial for the therapist to understand that the POW experience is not the same as or similar to veterans who were not captured. Prisoners of war face a sense of loss: loss of self-determination, hope, knowledge of home, and the chances for repatriation.
Many POWs have lived for months and years with a crushing sense of doom, seeing their...