Moral Injury of Abandonment
Moral injury is traumatic and may involve the loss of a sense of
Self (This is not who I am / I am a bad person)
Safety (I am not safe, others will reject me because of what I did)
Personal power (I had no choice or say in the matter)
It is important to use context and consider all the factors at play when helping people examine and reconcile the situation
Often they did the best they could with the tools they had in that situation at that time
Moral injury is defined as the profound psychological distress which results from actions, or the lack of them, which violate one’s moral or ethical code.
Abandonment means leaving, relinquishing or even choosing one over another.
People sometimes have to make the devastating choice to abandon one thing for the good of another
Other times (terminal illness) they may not have a choice
People may also suffer moral injury by proxy when the leaders of a culture with whom they identify engage in morally reprehensible acts.
Moral injury has multiple PACER impacts