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Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine military black humor as a form of adaptive processes and the individual�s response to the fear of death in the system of psychological defense mechanisms and coping strategies. A more complete results in this study can be gotten through the integration of discourse analysis and psychoanalytic interpretation. Discourse analysis has the most empirically oriented approach and allows to focus on extensive psychological issues such as cognition, emotions, attitudes, values, prejudices, memory, motives. Psychoanalytic interpretation focuses on the symbolism of the unconscious, universal meanings and psychological mechanisms that are important material to analyze totality of derived psychological meanings present in dark humor patterns. The material for this empirical, inductive study is text fragments, memes and photographs, which are posted on the website of �Military service� Ukrainian group. Results and discussions. One of the thematic dominants of military dark humor is the threat to life and fear of it. The fear of death itself is one of the human existence conditions. Such amount of fear fits into bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate that does not destroy or paralyze activity. In order to protect his psyche from the destructive effects of traumatic situation during which the norms of fear exceed the standards, a military man often seeks to restore the functional state of his body and reduce emotional stress. Considering this perspective as a pragmatic aspect of humor it can be argued that the creation of the game reality of death in dark humor depends, first of all, on those coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms, which are most appropriate for a person�s psyche. According to the terror management theory an individual uses certain coping strategies and defense mechanisms depending on whether or not he is aware of the inevitability of death. Analysis of the dark humor patterns created by the Ukrainian military and actualizing the theme of death and everything associated with it make it possible to outline the following range of adaptive mechanisms ranked in a descending order according to their relative importance in the total sample: �Desacralization�, �Regression�, �Desensitization�, �Positive re-evaluation�, �Displacement�, �Sublimation�, �Denial�. Conclusions. Being natural human emotion fear of death during combat activates defense mechanisms and coping strategies. The study of the projection of these occurrences in dark humor have made it possible to conclude that the military dark humor is the result of frustrating life experiences and aimed to reduce sensitivity to fears and improve their psychological state. This is achieved owing to changing the modal evaluation and the capability to be emotionally withdrawn.