Well there CAN be “desensitization” protocols, but they have to be carefully supervised. I doubt they’d just send him there and say good luck. Or maybe they would, knowing how discombobulated the VA can get.
From what I’ve read, Routh wasn’t in the Marine corp’s long enough to have been deployed. Perhaps he went there as a friend of someone else?
Hm. You “made” me write a lengthy response but I decided against posting it. All I can really say is, in the type of PTSD I’m familiar with you don’t strive to desensitize the patient to the trauma, you attempt to re-sensitize them to their core personality as it existed prior to the trauma.
PTSD is nasty. Attempting to desensitize someone suffering from it is like juggling flares in the shallow end of a pool filled with aviation fuel. Sooner, rather than later, someone’s going to get killed.
But there are many other disorders where desensitization is very effective.