Metaphysical Experiences in the Vietnam War: Narrative Therapy in Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

This study explores metaphysical and near-death experiences (NDEs) as culturally embedded responses to war trauma in Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War (1987) and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990). It explores how these elements illuminate silenced truths, examines the enduring physical and psychological trauma, and veterans’ struggles to reconcile with their painful past. By juxtaposing Eastern and Western cultural contrasts, the article examines how “chaos” and “quest” narrative forms differentially mediate metaphysical and near-death experiences in the war novels of Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien and what implications these divergent narrative structures hold for narrative therapy in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Based on trauma theory and narrative therapy, the study argues that such literary representations externalize trauma and offer diverse therapeutic possibilities for reconstructing the fractured identities of humans. Finally, this study contributes to an emerging interdisciplinary discourse between literature and the medical humanities, affirming storytelling as both an art form and a therapeutic practice that sustains cultural memory and ethical testimony in the postwar context.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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