The North American military aims to integrate its 1,1 million soldiers into intensive training for emotional elasticity. Although at first the students will be reduced to 1500 sergeants. The training, it is important to underline that it is the first for the military forces, implies the improvement of the conditions in combat even when the soldiers present some psychological disorders such as: depression, post-traumatic stress or suicidal ideas; exactly those psychopathologies most common in troops when they regress fromAfghanistan or from ourIraq. Treatment would be offered to soldiers in action, reserves and members of the National Guard although it may also be available to civilians, whether they are family members or employees. The new program consists of two phases: the first includes a basic training with weekly classes of 90 minutes in which you are taught to discover and control the mental patterns that lead to anger and frustration as well as to eliminate catastrophic thoughts. Even if it could appear an economic course, the money that will be invested will be around 117 million dollars, all assuming that the military culture will undergo a radical transformation since it is intended to achieve emotional control and eliminate attachment, signs of weakness. Naturally, in front of this idea appear its detractors and supporters, Psychologists of theUniversity of Pensylvania assure that they have developed training techniques with children and adolescents and have obtained that they learn elastic behaviors while some psychologists of the Columbia University they assure that there is no idea or theory that argues how a kind of program in this style could make soldiers more resilient people. However, those who are really in charge of evaluating the possible effectiveness of the program are Psychologists of theUniversity del Michigan. Personally I believe that one can educate to learn elasticity, but I also believe that any simulation carried out in the laboratory does not fully prepare to face the demands of daily life, much less on the battlefield; however, any emotional training is never bad.
