The Look and Feel of Moral Injury

Abstract

Abstract Philosophers usefully talk about the emotions that constitute a sense of moral accountability in terms of “reactive attitudes.” These include, on the negative side, guilt, shame, and moral disappointment toward self, resentment or moral disappointment and distrust toward others, and on the positive side, trust, hope, gratitude, and empathy toward self or others. The notion of reactive attitudes is essential in fleshing out the notion of moral injury and how it is experienced. Nevertheless, still what is missed in much of the philosophical and psychological literature is a discussion of the challenges of expressing those emotions in ways that have a chance of uptake and acknowledgment by self and others. What is missed are the pragmatics of expression and the subtle interpersonal transactions and reciprocations that can sow the seeds for moral healing. This chapter considers this interpersonal normative space.