Vietnam Veteran Rap Groups and Themes of Postwar Life

Abstract

From late 1970 through late 1974 New York City veterans held rap sessions which over 200 attended. Assisted by volunteer therapists the groups met weekly and offered a unique opportunity to explore the meaning of the veteran experience in a therapeutic context. Therapists reported becoming more involved emotionally in these than in groups they actually lead. While much of the work covered standard therapeutic issues, all of it was colored by the special nature of the military experience during the Indochina war and the prominence of the historical dimension in the traumas suffered by veterans.