Emphasis on stress
Military Stress and Performance: The Australian Defence Force Experience

Edited by George E. Kearney, Mark Creamer, Ric Marshall and Anne Goyne. Melbourne University Press, 278pp. $34.95

Reviewer :: Maj Damien Hadfield

This book pulls together current research and views from many of Australia’s leading authorities on stress – both within and outside the military. It follows an earlier publication, The Management of Stress in the ADF, in 2001 by the same group of editors. That book, while interesting, was quite scientific and disjointed, being comprised of individual scientific studies, generally on specific issues, operations or occupations.

This new book is much easier to read. There appears to have been a concerted effort to make this a professional publication, but without many of the psycho-babble words you often hear psychs using. And with its more general focus, looking at pressures we face at home as well as when away, the chapters hang together well to provide a comprehensive account of our understanding of stress in the military.

The extensive bibliography is also useful for those who want to read more on certain topics.

The book has a foreward by the CDF and is divided into five parts: The Stress Phenomenon, Enabling Resilience, Health and Welfare After Deployment, Caring for Casualties and Reflections on Managing Stress.

This last section was particularly interesting because of the succinct account it gives of how social and medical opinions about stress have changed over time.

The book should appeal to a wide range of people. I wish a book like this one had been around when I started in the ADF.

It’s a must-read for commanders and ADF health professionals, and also highly relevant to anyone with an interest in, or wishing to better understand, the stresses experienced by ADF members.

Military history buffs would also get a new perspective on some of our operations. Civilian friends and family of ADF members would probably find this book of interest, too, as it outlines the pressures experienced by the ADF without the blood and guts of going to the movies.