Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In The Novel 'Mulberry'

Maddy, the main character in the book “Mulberry” said, “I fell into a fitful sleep thinking about the unfairness of a world where children were always paying for their parents’ mistakes” (Boudreaux 238). Ever Since Maddy’s mother left to take care sick Ida Bea, Maddy along with her brothers were paying for the mistakes of their parents. They were hungry, they were homeless, they were physically and verbally abused and they were neglected. Maddy nearly escaped from being raped twice. Their alcoholic father, a World War II veteran who suffer from a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), is the first in line to blame. In the book “Mulberry”, Paulette Boudreaux shows us how children as innocent as Maddy and her brothers affected by a vicious circle where their PTSD victim father who resorted to alcohol as means to relieve his pain physically abused and neglected them when they need him the most.

From “exhaustion” during the Napoleonic war to “shell shock” during World War I, and “combat fatigue” during World War II (PTSD:A cultural 30). However, the name Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has only been formally introduced into the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-III) in 1980 (Andreasen 67). Some psychologists argue that the inclusion of PTSD in the DSM-III legitimated this psychological disorder although many argue that it was merely a relabeling of what had already been described as “shell shock,” “combat trauma” or “combat fatigue” ( 67). Nevertheless, the question is, has PTSD always existed? Was the symptoms Mr. Culpepper, a veteran of World War II, exhibited a