"Virtual Iraq" -Sue Harpern- (Abstract)

“…VR therapy, maybe it will work. We’re a video game generation. It’s what we grew up on. So maybe we’ll respond to it.” This was stated by Paul Rleckoff but some doctors, psychologist and researchers share the same belief. VR stands for virtual reality. VR Therapy is being proposed by some doctors for the treatment of PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. VR is explained to be a CBT, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, which is meant to take the traumatic experiences and re-introduce those memories to the patient. Once done continuously, the memory of those events may remain but it is now a discrete event instead of a self-replicating encompassing condition (p.119). As previously mentioned, some doctors and psychologist have endorsed the idea, but others are more skeptical fearing it may have the opposite effect.

“Travis Boyd” is used to exemplify the success of VR therapy. He is a veteran and a PTSD patient. In order to live his day to day life VR Therapy was proposed and he accepted. While he was not cured of PTSD, he has testified that the intrusive thoughts have dissipated, and he is learning to live with his PTSD and cope with the memories of his tour of duty in Iraq (p.128). He was used as an example that VR Therapy works. However, I would not be quick to side with the belief that VR Therapy may be the ideal treatment for PTSD patients because "Boyd" is only the story of one man. Even more so, the reader does not know how mild or extreme his case of PTSD was to determine any amount of success in VR Therapy. Yes, a lot of information about VR Therapy was supplied by the author, but other than “Travis Boyd,” VR Therapy remains an experiment.