Moral injury

Moral injury refers to an injury to an individual's moral conscience resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression which produces profound emotional shame. The concept of moral injury emphasizes the psychological, cultural, and spiritual aspects of trauma. Distinct from pathology, moral injury is a normal human response to an abnormal event. The concept is currently used in literature on the mental health of military veterans who have witnessed or perpetrated an act in combat that transgressed their deeply held moral beliefs.