Publication Date

2-19-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Rhetoric of Health and Medicine

Volume

9

Issue

1

DOI

10.5744/rhm.2026.2982

First Page

33

Last Page

61

Abstract

Survivor’s guilt haunts countless veterans, yet little research examines how veterans rhetorically process this experience. This study analyzes poetry from post-9/11 veterans to identify a distinct rhetorical mode we term reparative ethos. While existing Mental Health Rhetoric Research (MHRR) has identified and extensively explored recuperative ethos—strategies used to restore credibility in the face of externally imposed stigma—we propose that some veterans may also engage in what we call reparative ethos. Unlike recuperative ethos, which addresses externally imposed stigma through appeals to living audiences, reparative ethos emerges from self-avowed feelings of culpability and aims to make amends to internalized representations of lost comrades. Drawing on Melanie Klein’s object relations theory and Mental Health Rhetoric Research (MHRR), we analyze poems from Warrior Writers anthologies that explicitly address survivor’s guilt. Our analysis reveals that veterans engage in narrative acts of reparation directed toward deceased others, addressing both the loss of external relationships and threats to internalized military ethos. This research extends MHRR by demonstrating how trauma can generate inward-facing rhetorical strategies focused on healing rather than persuasion, offering new frameworks for understanding veteran mental healthcare and creative expression.

Keywords

Kleinian object relations, mental health rhetoric research, recuperative ethos, reparative ethos, survivor’s guilt

Comments

This article originally appeared in Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2026. The article can also be found online at: https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2026.2982.

Department

Communication Studies

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Available for download on Friday, February 19, 2027

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