Sheila Umemoto on soldiers, resilience, and suicide
Sheila Kathleen Umemoto is doing her PhD in Applied Social Psychology at Portland State University, with several other degrees in mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and applied behavioral studies. Sheila was a distinguished graduate of the reserve officer training corps (ROTC) program and officer leadership course, served 4 years in the US Army, and earned military accommodation medals on combat tour in the Middle East. Now retired from the military, Sheila applies existential concepts (e.g., meaning, death, being-in-the-world) to social psychological research on the self, well-being, and relationships. Recently, her work has explored death-related concerns among combat veterans and resilience against suicide among active duty soldiers.
Sheila on the web: Lab Website | LinkedIn | Research Gate
By Kenneth Vail, Cleveland State University. November 11, 2022.
ISSEP: How did you first become aware of and interested in existentialism and existential psychology?
Sheila Umemoto: Well, my upbringing had a big influence on my educational path and research interests. I come from a very large, very traditional Catholic family. Both sides of my family had difficulties with mental health and addiction, and as a result I became emancipated when I was 13. So, I took care of myself from freshman year of high school onward and I remember being alone while I suddenly faced all these very mature questions—Who am I? What am I supposed to be doing? What is my potential? What does it all mean?
Clockwise from top left: Immanuel Kant (upper left), Johann Gottlieb Fichte (upper right), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (lower left), and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (lower right); the US Army ROTC; and an American soldier supervising a missile system in the Middle East.
So, when I got to college, I became deeply interested in philosophy. In one of my courses, we studied German idealism; the professor was a Hegelian and introduced me to phenomenology and the existentialist track. I loved that, read everything I could my hands on, and felt so much of it resonated with my own experiences with identity, self-actualization, and struggling with authenticity. I was good at it and was able to pay for part of my tuition with academic scholarships, as a philosophy major.
However, I had also been paying for the rest of my tuition with athletic scholarships, as a member of the women’s wrestling team. But because women’s wrestling was a new sport, funding was unstable, and about halfway through my program the athletic scholarship dried up. I needed another way to pay for tuition, and the reserve officers’ training corps (ROTC) offered scholarships in exchange for an obligation of service. So, I signed the forms, completed my degree, and then served in the US Army. At first, I thought I might just stick with it and pursue a military career; and the Army has a women’s wrestling program so that was a plus as well. But, again, being a new sport there wasn’t a lot of funding available and it wasn’t easy to get assigned to the relevant unit. So, I ended up getting deployed to combat zones in the Middle East, as an officer in charge of 45 soldiers working with missile systems. Being in a combat zone was dangerous, stressful, and it felt like we were there for a very long time.
When we returned home, I decided the military was not where I wanted to be and that I would prefer to work in the letters, arts, and sciences. So, I left the military and went back to school. I did a master’s in education and behavioral science at Oklahoma, while I was having kids, and then my wife and I moved to Portland where I decided to bring all my academic interests (philosophy, education, behavioral science) and real-world experiences (military combat and veteran life) together by pursuing a PhD in psychological science. That’s how I started working on practical applications of existential ideas to improving daily living and well-being, especially in veteran’s lives. Then I was really excited to hear about ISSEP, because it helped give shape to the science of existential psychology and it meant a whole community of researchers found it interesting and worth pursuing.
ISSEP: You’ve been doing some research on existential concerns and resilience against suicide, especially among soldiers. Can you tell us more about your research on the topic?
Sheila Umemoto: My time in the military gave me a unique perspective to be able to study the psychological impact of certain existential issues. So, I’ve been collaborating with Dr. Cynthia Mohr and Sara Arpin in the Dyadic Research Lab at Portland State University, contributing to research funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) to study the health and well-being of military personnel. Some of our data are focused on veterans who’ve retired and are integrating back into civilian life, and some of our data are focused on active duty soldiers.
My own work on the team has focused on the role of various existential attitudes in coping outcomes ranging from healthy coping to problems like substance abuse, relationship dysfunction, and suicide. Regardless of what particular role a soldier might have in the military, everyone has basic training, can pick up a weapon and fight, and operates on the premise that they’re defending the country. The job inherently involves concerns about security, and the idea that we soldiers are the heroes protecting millions of people from violence and death. In the military context, existential threat is a risk that can be controlled through force, with disciplined action, together with other service members. Indeed, we’ve found, in a general population sample (2020), existential insecurity was associated with problematic coping, such as in the form of hazardous alcohol use; however, in an active-duty sample (2022), death anxiety was associated with more disciplined use of risky substances (e.g., alcohol) and increased sense of belonging, indicating reduced suicide risk. In another study (2020) among active-duty soldiers, we found combat exposure did not lead to psychological distress when soldiers felt they had good military job performance.
We’ve also got some ongoing projects that are examining identity, role ambiguity, and authenticity in soldiers lives. For example, although soldiers may have (had) clearly defined purpose in their military roles, maybe they don’t have a clear sense of purpose at home because their parent or spouse runs their households (common for soldiers who are sometimes away from home for extended periods), or because they’re on deployment and unable to regularly interact with their hobbies and loved-ones. Such situations can leave soldiers and veterans struggling to know who they “truly” are and which of their roles apply in different situations. I’ve also been working with Leslie Hammer to develop intervention training, with veteran populations, to help provide resilience training against psychological distresses and suicide risk.
ISSEP: Do you see your research being illustrated in the arts, humanities, or pop culture?
Picasso’s famous mural, Guernica (1937) vividly depicts the death anxiety and psychological distress that can occur during military combat.
Sheila Umemoto: Yes, one of the most easily identifiable pieces is Picasso’s famous mural, Guernica (1937). It depicts the bombing of Guernica, in the Basque region of northern Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. The region had been as a stronghold for supporters of the pro-Democracy forces, communists, and socialists, who were united in their opposition to the Spanish Nationalists (fascists). The Nationalists requested the Nazis help their cause by attacking the city, and on Monday, April 26, 1937, Nazi warplanes bombed the city for two hours. The day was Guernica’s market day, so residents were congregated in the town center for shopping; military targets were not hit, leaving many to consider it a terror attack on civilians.
Picasso’s composition captures the existential torment, chaos, and psychological distress of the event. The light above suggests explosions; bulls and horses are wide-eyed and terrified; a woman wails while holding a dead child in her arms; bodies lay on the ground, some women are running and another is burned by one of the bombs—her hands suggest the planes; and the horse’s nostrils and upper teeth form a skull, representing death.
Although the animals and people depicted are not soldiers, it vividly depicts the death anxiety and psychological distress (to say nothing of the physical destruction) that can occur during military combat—especially without adequate performance of military defenses. The psychological consequences are clearly torment and despair, with possible downstream effects on risky substance use, continued mental distress, and suicide.
What do you think are some of the remaining issues in studying existential concerns and resilience against suicide among soldiers?
Sheila Umemoto: I see two interesting directions for future existential psychology research in this area. One is about suicide and meaning, and the other is about authenticity and the self-concepts of soldiers.
Clockwise from left: Sisyphus (1545) by Titian; Albert Camus; The myth of Sisyphus (1942).
The first, suicide risk, can take some useful cues from classic existentialist literature. A variety of different existentialists have addressed it in a variety of different ways, but one of the best-known is Albert Camus’ treatment. In several of his works, he presents the idea that the meaning of life, in any given moment, is whatever keeps you from killing yourself. It’s through that lens that he reconsiders The myth of Sisyphus (1942). In the classic myth, Sisyphus misbehaves and the gods attempt to punish him by dooming him to push a bolder up a mountain, watch it roll back down, and push it back up again—over and over for eternity. In many ways, the task bears similarity to the repetitive drudgery of, e.g., agriculture, office jobs, or even military conflicts. Camus argues that realizing the absurdity of life’s tasks may cause one to despair and give up by committing suicide. But, instead, he urges that the best response is to become conscious of the futile absurdity of life’s tasks, resolve to embrace the tasks anyway, and thus find meaning, satisfaction, and happiness in doing them. In that way, he says, it’s possible to imagine Sisyphus happy. Likewise, it would be interesting to study soldiers’ awareness of the absurdity of conflict (and preparations for it), their “resolve” to nevertheless embrace their role toward various meaningful goals (e.g., duty, defense, conquest), and subsequent physical and mental health.
The second is about authenticity and the various self-concepts of soldiers. This is related to Camus’ work, as well as Nietzsche’s argument that there’s no pre-existing source of meaning in the universe—it’s all just foisted upon us by prior generations in a sort of cultural momentum. Becoming aware of that fact reveals that one doesn’t have to accept those meanings; one can create one’s own meaning. Indeed, the soldier might highly value individual expression and authenticity. But, of course, the military can’t merely be a collection of separate individuals with uncoordinated systems of meaning and value—such an organization would surely descend into chaos. Effective organization depends on a shared and well-structured system of values, beliefs, and standards. Indeed, the military provides rigorous training and imposes clearly defined roles and responsibilities on its soldiers. So, how do soldiers navigate their various self-concepts, balancing their internalized values (their “true selves”) alongside the values, standards, and goals externally imposed by their military? The ability for soldiers to maintain a healthy “work-life” balance, and selectively apply these self-concepts to different situations may be related to the perception of meaning in those situations, mitigated suicide risk, and broad-based satisfaction with life.
ISSEP: You’ve attended, and presented research at, our Existential Psychology preconference; how has your experience been with that?
“I’ve found the “home” for my research interests. It’s great fun and super useful!”
Sheila Umemoto: I’ve attended the Existential Psychology preconference since the first one in 2019 in Portland. It was great to see so many other people interested in the topic area, to hear about what everyone else was researching, and to meet and network with other researchers in existential psychology. I’ve presented my own research at each preconference, and each time I got some supportive and insightful feedback from other researchers such as Jeff Greenberg, Elizabeth Pinel, and Peter Helm. I really feel like I’ve found the “home” for my research interests. It’s great fun and super useful!
ISSEP: What is one piece of advice you would give to future students who have an interest in following in your footsteps?
Sheila Umemoto: My advice would be that you can be both interested in existential psychology and also follow your nose. No matter what you’re interested in, there are connections to existential themes. Developmental, cognitive, affective, social, personality, clinical psychology; the list goes on and on, and existential concerns play a fundamental role in each of them. So many processes are involved in making meaning out of the world, in exercising authentic choices, and becoming one version of yourself or another.
ISSEP: Can you tell us a little about yourself outside the research context?
Left to right: Sheila wrestling in the 2009 US Open Finals (singlet colors top to bottom: blue, red, blue, blue); Sheila (right) and her wife, Na’Tasha (left), coaching the Oregon national team in 2019, with their then-1-year-old daughter supervising.
Sheila Umemoto: I’ve spent most of my life as a wrestling athlete. I started when I was 12, back when women’s wrestling wasn’t even an Olympic sport yet. When it became an Olympic sport, in 2004, they started having training camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. So, I got invited to come to those training camps, and began traveling around the US to train and compete. Eventually, I became a training partner for one of the Olympians, Sarah McMahon, who competed in the 2004 games.
My wife, Na’Tasha, and I met when we were resident athletes at the Training Center. We started dating there in Colorado Springs, then traveled together for wrestling throughout college, and now we’re in Oregon coaching and trying to grow the sport. I coach youth women’s wrestling as a national team coach and serve on the women’s committee of the Oregon Wrestling Association (OWA). They’ve just sanctioned a state tournament at the high school level, and we’re starting to have a lot of local tournaments and lots of training camps.
Na’Tasha and I have been married for about 16 years and we have 5 kids: twin 3-year-old girls, twin 7-year-old boys and a 9-year-old girl. We both grew up wrestling, so it’s really special that we still get to share that together and coach. And now our kids are starting to get into the sport as well, so it’s become a really fun family-oriented way to spend our time together.
ISSEP: A lot of us like to listen to music in the lab; what are you listening to lately?
Sheila Umemoto: I always wanted to learn the piano, but never had the time. (It’s on the bucket list, so hopefully it will happen at some point.) The result is that, especially when I’m trying to concentrate or when I’m working, I love to listen to instrumental piano music. One of my favorite songs to listen to while writing is called “Cristofori’s Dream” by David Lanz. When I’m not working or writing, I like to go running while listening to electronica; anything with 38 bpm works for that because it helps me run to the beat.