Page 89 - JSOM Summer 2025

Conventional medical experiences increase the range of the easy, but the experiences enabled by this calling allowed
SOF medic’s capability in the face of catastrophic injury expo- us to develop discernment and wisdom.
sure and enhance their effectiveness during SOF missions. The
practical implication of this finding suggests the importance of Every participant in this research clearly articulated a “call-
ongoing collaborations between conventional and SOF med- ing” to what they referred to as dirt medicine. Therefore, data
ics to properly prepare for SOF deployments. The theoretical strongly suggests the perfective aim of SOF medicine is caring
implication of this finding suggests that an animated partner- for the catastrophically injured within the complex SOF kine-
ship between conventional and unconventional resilience en- sphere. This telos not only orients practical performance in
sconced in a holistic, humanistic infrastructure will support SOF medicine but also gives rise to particular experiences that
operational effectiveness during SOF missions. shape the character of SOF medics.

Medical-Martial Professionalism: SOF medicine is part of the nascent medical-martial profes-
Playing with Aristotle and the Auto-telic sion. Within Aristotle’s teleological worldview, practical per-
formance skills, also known as virtues, are associated with the
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Our philosophically versed readers will quickly note that we telos of a particular professional community. Our analysis
have been exploring practical performance within Aristotle’s of the cultural values, norms, skills, and standards gave rise
teleological worldview. However, teleology is potentially for- to nine agility traits, which we take to be potential virtues of
eign to a portion of our audience. Therefore, we now explicate the medical-martial profession. Virtues become stable patterns
how particular elements of Aristotle’s worldview inform our of thinking, feeling, and acting when training orients practical
holistic, humanistic infrastructure. Aristotle, unlike the static performance enhancement toward its explicated professional
bounce back theory, assumes human character is always be- telos. If validated through further research, these agility traits
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ing formed in the process of integrating human experience in could become core virtues in an emerging professional code of
the kinesphere of social interactions. 11,14 the Warrior Medic. The five social determinants function like
an interstate system connecting real-world experiences that
The biomechanical, reductive infrastructure theorizes that occur within the kinesphere of the medical-martial profession
mind and matter are essentially two different substances. In across the deployment cycle.
contrast, Aristotle theorizes that everything in the natural
world—to include human beings—is an integration of vi- Within our holistic, humanistic infrastructure, unconventional
tal form and matter, which contains the potential to change, resilience is not a character trait of the individual SOF medic,
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mature, and develop. Every aspect of nature has an essential team, or organization. It is the state of peak performance, in
quality that moves toward an ultimate purpose, which Aris- which a particular way of being, thinking, or feeling—called
totle calls a telos. Telos has often been translated as the “end an auto-telic experience—motivates the expression of dynamic
goal” of practical performance when describing human action freedom of maneuver in ambiguity. Csikszentmihalyi’s theory
in the world. However, it is better understood as the perfective of play defined the auto-telic experience as a state of flow in
aim that shapes human motivation and action. Human beings which practical performance is intrinsically motivated when
do not achieve their telos, they express their character by act- contextual conditions support the individual’s, team’s, and
ing in accordance with their telos. 15 organization’s ability to strive toward their perfective aims.
Creating an optimal balance between capability and challenge
Character maturation and development occur as individuals allows the individual, team, or organization to enter a hyper-
integrate life experiences while moving toward their perfective focused performance state :
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aim. The telos serves as the “true north” of practical perfor-
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mance, which is explained by the following quote: We love dirt medicine. We thrive in an environment where
we can organize and pattern chaos. When we respond
Succeeding at SOF medicine means being the right indi- to a mass casualty we automatically lock into a work-flow
vidual. Maybe it’s arrogant, but not everyone can come that allows us to zoom-in on critical details and simultane-
in, do the job, and be successful. Individuals who thrive ously zoom-out on the global situation, which maximizes
in this environment have a number of commonalities. our ability to manage large numbers of catastrophic casu-
They are: calm in pressure, enjoy taking risk, love being alties. Most of us feed off this job and would constantly
in nature, work well in teams, drawn to caring for people deploy if we could.
in their worst hour, enjoy fast-pace of activities, and are
creative problem solvers who do not have to rely on end- Professional satisfaction and enhancement are motivated by
less technology or need to be in a sterile environment being in a flow state, which is experienced as a performance
to feel comfortable providing medical treatment. Most of feedback loop that increases immersion with the task at hand,
us agree that there is a lot of joy and satisfaction to be satisfaction in the immediate experience, and adaptivity in
gained from taking care of individuals in dangerous, aus- complex ambiguous environments. 16
tere, less than optimal conditions. Operational medicine
is a very unique calling; especially, the things we did in SOF Medic as Medical-Martial Artist
SOST. Some would be horrified by the conditions in which
we practiced our trade, but we got back to the essence Our analysis highlights that the SOF medic, team, and organi-
of medicine—taking care of human beings in pain. The zation are formed within a community of artisans who pursue
simplicity of this mission is substantive, it really helped us performance mastery of their unique craft. The etymological
grow and develop personal and professional wisdom. Be- definition of art is a person who is skilled at a craft. When prac-
ing drawn to caring for those in intense pain and formed tical performance is oriented toward the advancement of med-
to support a dangerous, dark, and dirty mission is not ical-martial artistry, technique supports authentic freedom of

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