Virtual Iraq Abstract

Sue Halperns main claim in Virtual Iraq is that immersion therapy using a virtual world of war time may dramatically help in dealing with PSTD. Sue’s article talks about many different aspects of the how immersion therapy works. When I first read about immersion therapy I was confused as how going back to the place that hurt you so deeply was a good idea. But seeing the further development of trying to desensitize the person the memories and environment, showed that it works. Sue uses interviews and past experiments related to Virtual Iraq, like virtual Vietnam, to support her argument.
What else was interesting is how masculine the therapy treatment is. Several times in the article it is mentioned how therapy is not masculine, and how it is frowned about in the marines. Even the creator of Virtual Iraq, is described as an extremely masculine person, who drives a specific type of motor cycle. Virtual Iraq is basically immersion therapy for people who cannot accept the idea of divulging there problems to a human being.
Sue talks about this virtual therapy to show how advanced technology is becoming, that now therapy has become virtual reality. The patients or at least “Travis Boyd” showed significant improvement by this experimental trial at virtual therapy.