Achilles in Veitnam, Jonathan Shay

Achilles in Vietnam, by Jonathan Shay is written by a Psychiatrist who works in Massachusetts with Vietnam veterans with severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Through the accounts of his patients and his work with them the Dr. explains many of the things we read about in literature from the Vietnam era and the same things we read about in the classics like Homer's the Iliad. Such things would include Berserk mentality. This is something that the character, Achilles, experiences after the death of his very close friend, Patroclas (sic). This is the attitude of a soldier who fights with abandon and does not care at all if he dies. He does not because of another phenomenon which has occurred prior to this, the "betrayal of what is right". This is where the soldier experiences a betrayal by his superior officer and it causes the soldier to smolder with rage over this event. This may or may not lead to the death of a buddy or it may or may not lead to the berserk event. However, from reading this book it would seem that if the death of a friend is a consequence of this betrayal then a berserk event is much more likely.