PTSD research is best examined as two very different entities, or two very different approaches to the same issue. To wit:
The government, the Mental Health Industry and Academia who all seem to be operating in the certain knowledge that this phenomenon is:
a) A recent discovery as opposed to a recent relabeling of a very ancient phenomenon.
b) A Mental Illness like Paranoia or ??? that can be dealt with effectively with pharmaceuticals and modern(?) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT or Talk Therapy).
c) They continue to pursue that strategy despite it’s abysmal track record.
d) I am reminded of one of my favorite Bumper Stickers:
” A flawless line of reasoning, based on a false premise leads us . . . right through the lookin’ glass . . ..”
More innovative, independent players have, for some time now, treated PTSD as a spiritual phenomenon and search through history for some data around how the ancients dealt with it.
a) Turns out there is a plethora of information. Turns out that there are references of PTSD everywhere, from Greek Mythology to Homer to the Old Testament and pretty much everywhere they looked.
“The ancients invariably considered and dealt with it as a spiritual issue”
It appears that any cultures that dealt with is as other than a spiritual issue are now long extinct.