Traumatic War Experiences Research Articles

Швабский плуг в украинском небе: литературные репрезентации немецко-украинского пограничья в дискурсе памяти о волынских немцах (на материале творчества Г.-У. Трайхеля)

В статье на примере образа Волыни в творчестве современного немецкого писателя и литературоведа Г.-У. Трайхеля анализируется конструкт немецко-украинского пограничья, сформировавшийся в рамках диаспорной модели. В центре исследования находится вопрос о том, как в трайхелевских текстах концептуально и эстетически осмысляется украино-немецкое пограничье вместе с характерными для него коннотациями этнокультурных и ментальных границы. Специфика этого образа в трайхелевских текстах не в последнюю очередь определяется его опосредованностью воспоминаниями отца писателя – волынского немца, который во время Второй мировой войны сначала перебрался в оккупированную немцами Польшу, а затем вместе с молодой женой – уроженкой одной из находившихся на польской территории немецких колоний – бежал от наступавшей советской армии в Западную Германию. Влияние их травматичного опыта войны и бегства на реконструируемый образ утраченной родины являются важным аспектом осуществляемого в статье исследования. Вместе с тем, в поле рассмотрения включаются также ментальные карты Восточной Европы, накладывающие свой отпечаток как на изображаемую топографию, так и на конструирование индивидуальной и коллективной идентичности.

Stresni socijalni i materijalni uslovi kao medijatori između ratnih traumatskih iskustava i mentalnog zdravlja odraslih na Kosovu i Metohiji

In the study of the consequences of intense trauma, we find numerous consequences for people who survived it and who live in postwar environment. A number of authors report strong and sustained reactions of persons who have experienced a traumatic event, especially the expression of depressive, anxiety and somatic symptoms in persons exposed to war stress, for example in persecution, fighting, trapping etc. Interest in the psychological effects of war has skyrocketed over the last twenty five years. The two leading approaches to understanding the mental health of people affected by war are the trauma-focused approach and the psychosocial approach. This paper deals with war traumatic experiences of the population from Kosovo and Metohija and their impact on mental health. Direct influence exists, based on a trauma-focused approach, where a critical factor is direct exposure to violence and the devastating effects of war, the most important factor affecting mental health. Following the existing models on the basis of theoretical foundations as well as the psychosocial approach which considers the role of stressful social and material conditions that emerge in the post-war years in Kosovo and Metohija on mental health, the authors come up with the idea to examine the mediating impact of these conditions. Revising the current model authors postulated a model of war traumatic experiences and their effects on mental health mediated by social and material conditions. Structural equation modeling was used to test the fit of the model. The assumption of the mediating role of stressful social and material conditions caused by war traumatic experiences on adult mental health was confirmed. The tested model, with the proposed modifications, showed agreement with the empirical data.

From Mountains to Oceans: The Prison Narratives of Behrouz Boochani

The political autobiography No Friend but the Mountains revolves around the lived experiences of Behrouz Boochani, first as a Kurdish undocumented refugee, through his boat journey to Australia, and then as a detainee in an Australian offshore immigration detention center on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea). By considering diverse literary techniques and forms of expression and the dichotomy between poetic language and realistic mode, this essay analyzes Boochani’s reflections on the systematic violence and abuse in the prison and immigration system, and the “coloniality of power” in general from the perspective of a Kurd whose preoccupation with his cultural/national “identity” and “homeland” is greatly influenced by the traumatic experiences of war and conflicts that led him to flee Kurdistan. It also examines the influence of Kurdish oral and written literary traditions on his narration.

Women in refuge: Syrian women voicing health sequelae due to war traumatic experiences and displacement challenges

ObjectiveThe Syrian war created a mass exodus of people to neighboring countries. Jordan hosts approximately 1.4 million Syrians who sought refuge and protection. This research represents an effort to understand the subjective narratives of Syrian refugee women's war traumatic experiences and displacement challenges while living in Jordan and the consequences on their physical and mental health. MethodsData gathered between March and June 2014 included 24 in-depth interviews with Syrian refugee women who sought services from humanitarian organizations in Jordan. Interviews were conducted in Arabic and were audio recorded. A team of four researchers translated and transcribed the interviews. Group narrative methodology was utilized to analyze the interviews. ResultsThe study suggests that Syrian refugee women experienced diverse war atrocities including shelling, loss of property, separation from family members, and threats to their lives and their beloved ones, among a few. In Jordan, they reported on multiple displacement challenges, which are perceived as a continuous traumatic experience, as well as somatization. Narratives of women also included sequelae to their physical and mental health due to such stressors. Barriers to obtaining physical and mental health services are discussed, including inadequate medical treatment, lack of mental health services, and stigma on mental health, which might be associated to somatization of mental illnesses. ConclusionIt is crucial that humanitarian organizations and host countries like Jordan bear the responsibility to enhancing accessibility to comprehensive trauma-focused physical and mental health services for Syrian refugees in a culturally and gender sensitive manner.

War trauma narratives: visualization, focalization, narration techniques in short stories by Antanas Škėma, Visuomis, and Jurgis Jankus

The article analyzes different narrative techniques that help to express traumatic war-related experiences in short stories. For this case study of motifs related to experiences of war and the use of ingenious techniques of narrative construction, the following fictional texts (short stories) were selected: “Silence of the Night” (1947) by Antanas Škėma; “Rose Red” (1915) by Visuomis (pseudonym of Paulius Galaunė); and “World Painter” (1951) by Jurgis Jankus. In 1944 Škėma (1910–1961) and Jankus (1906–2002) left Lithuania and moved to the West. In 1949 Škėma emigrated to the United States, a year later Jankus did the same. Galaunė (1890–1988) permanently stayed in Lithuania after finishing his studies in St. Petersburg. The article suggests the hypothesis that short stories written in emigration contain brighter motifs and convey a stronger belief of getting over the traumatic war experiences. The analysis of these texts reveals the most effective elements that portray traumatic war experiences in the narrative.

Ecological Approach to Academic Achievement in the Face of War and Military Violence: Mediating and Moderating Role of School, Family, and Child Characteristics

Based on the ecological-transactional model by Bronfenbrenner, this study tested the mediating roles of school, family, and child characteristics between academic achievement and both traumatic war experiences and stressful life events. It further examined which of these characteristics could protect academic achievement from negative trauma impacts. Participants were 303 Palestinian children (51.2% girls; age, M = 10.94 ± .50 years) and their parents. Standard tests measured children’s language and math achievements. Children reported on motivational beliefs, learning, and coping strategies; teachers’ practices and peer relationships; sibling relationships and parents’ scholastic involvement; and war trauma and stressful life events. Results showed that parental scholastic involvement and children’s motivation and learning strategies mediated between war trauma and academic achievement, whereas teachers’ practices, siblingship, and children’s motivation and learning strategies mediated the impacts of stressful life events on achievement. Good peer relationships and, marginally, parental scholastic encouragement functioned as protective factors for children’s academic achievement in war conditions.

Whining and Winning: Male Narratives of Love, Marriage, and Divorce in the Shadow of the Third Reich

AbstractThis article analyzes the social realities that Austrian and German heterosexual men, all in their reproductive age, confronted in the aftermath of World War II; the kind of sexual and gendered configurations produced under Nazism and during the postwar period; and the ways in which these social and emotional realities were publically and privately dealt with after the war. It draws on reports in, and letters-to-the-editor of, the journalLiebe und Ehefrom 1949 to 1951, as well as on a sample of fourteen private letters written by an Austrian policeman in 1951 about his love relationship with a nurse. Such early postwar narratives not only point at issues and conflicts between the sexes, but also suggest the rehabilitation of traditional gender roles in West Germany and Austria. Men struggled to conform to new guidelines of heterosexual domesticity, a development that hints not only at traumatic war experiences, but also at the ideological residuals of Nazism.

Society, individual, family, and school factors contributing to child mental health in war: The ecological-theory perspective.

Mental health problems are common in war-affected areas, but children have different levels of vulnerability. Based on ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005), this study analyses how factors related to the child (cognitive capacity), their family (parental depression and parenting styles), and their school (teachers' practices and peer relations) mediate the association between traumatic stress (traumatic war experiences and stressful life-events) and child mental health (posttraumatic stress and psychological distress symptoms). The participants were 303 Palestinian children (51.2% girls) of 10-13 years (M = 10.94 ± 0.50) and their parents from the Gaza Strip. The children filled in questionnaires during school classes and the parents did so at their homes. The results of structural equation modeling substantiated the hypothesis that parental depression, poor parenting and low-quality peer relations mediated between traumatic stress and children's mental health problems. Contrary to the hypothesis, child-related factors did not mediate that association. To conclude, parents and peers provide important age-salient social resources for children in war conditions, and psychosocial interventions should therefore enhance their beneficial functions.

Discourse Structure in Juozas Aputis’s Triptych of Short Stories The Green Bend of Time

This paper discusses actor relations, time and space in Juozas Aputis’s triptych of short stories “Žalias laiko vingis“ (The Green Bend of Time, 1977). These three short stories are linked by the figure of the traveller-narrator.The first short story, “Arklio akyse“ (In the Horse’s Eyes) contains several individual and collective anthropomorphic actors as well as two zoomorphic actors – a mare called Jūra (Sea) and a small dog. The story also contains clear configurations of closed and open spaces, and a distinct aspectualisation of inchoate, terminative and durative time. In the second short story, “Troboj prie upės” (In a Hut by the River), the figurative paths of two actors – a traveller and a woman – are developed in parallel. The traveller becomes a listener to a dramatic lifetime confession and tries to solve the puzzle of the impossibility of coexistence between man and woman.The object of value in the first story is lost time, while in the second it a wish to get rid of one’s burden. In the third story, “Žalias laiko vingis” (The Green Bend of Time), the adopted burden of somebody else’s life becomes the traveller’s object of value.In the first story, space and time emerge in childhood memories; in the second one, the space of the homeland is replaced by an isolated hut and a railway; in the third one, the bend of time connects a traumatic war experience with mundane monotony, and the visibly present figures with their counterparts in the utopian space of childhood.

The protective role of maternal post-traumatic growth and cognitive trauma processing in Palestinian mothers and infants: a longitudinal study

BackgroundWomen at pre partum and post partum are especially susceptible to war trauma because they struggle to protect their infants from danger. Trauma research suggests increased problems in maternal mental health and infant development. Yet many cognitive-emotional processes affect the trauma survivors' mental health, such as post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic cognition. The aim of this study was to examine whether a mother's high post-traumatic growth and optimal post-traumatic cognition could protect their own mental health and their infant's stress regulation from the effects of traumatic war experiences. MethodsThis three-wave prospective study involved Palestinian women living in the Gaza Strip who were at the second trimester of pregnancy (T1), women with infants aged 4 months (T2), and women with children aged 12 months (T3) months. The participants reported their war experiences in a 30-item checklist of losses, destruction, and atrocities in the 2008–09, 2012, and 2014 military offensives. Post-traumatic growth was assessed by a 21-item scale and post-traumatic cognition by a 36-item scale. Maternal mental health was assessed by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive, anxiety, and dissociation symptoms at T1 and T3, and infants' stress regulation was assessed with the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire at T2 and T3. FindingsWe included 511 women at T1, 481 women at T2, and 454 women at T3. High maternal post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic cognition had protective roles. Post-traumatic growth had a protective effect on maternal mental health since severe exposure to traumatic war experiences was not associated with maternal PTSD, depression, and dissociation if women showed high post-traumatic growth, as indicated by the significant interaction effect between post-traumatic growth and war trauma on each of the three symptoms. Post-traumatic cognition had a protective effect on infant development since severe exposure was not associated with dysfunctional infant emotion regulation when mothers reported optimal post-traumatic cognition, as indicated by the significant interaction effect between post-traumatic cognition and war trauma on each of negative affectivity and surgency or extraversion. InterpretationThe nature of cognitive emotional processing of war trauma could explain the distinct roles of post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic cognition. High post-traumatic growth involves increased social affiliation, spiritual awareness, and psychological strengths resulting from painful and traumatic experiences. In the national struggle for independence, post-traumatic growth is often associated with heroism and even hardiness, which might benefit a mother's mental health but not their infant's wellbeing. Optimal post-traumatic cognition indicates successful and harmonious trauma processing, which enables mothers to be more reflective and sensitive to their infant's needs. Interventions to promote healthy infant development in war settings should encourage and support mothers' effective cognitive-emotional processing of traumatic experiences. FundingThe Academy of Finland and University of Tampere, Finland.

Pathways Between Combat Stress and Physical Health Among Portuguese War Veterans.

In this study, I explored the experience of both physical and psychological chronic illnesses among a sample of Portuguese war veterans. Twenty suffered from chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; unrecovered) and 20 had remission from PTSD (recovered), and all participants suffered from a chronic physician-diagnosed medical disorder. Two semistructured interviews were conducted. Analysis of the interviews was conducted using the Thematic and Categorical Analysis. Unrecovered participants reported higher moral injury, discrepancy between pre- and postwar identity, medication side effects, and lower repertoire of coping strategies, and verbalized that treatment care plan triggers posttraumatic symptoms. Recovered participants reported stronger moral repair, sense of continuity between pre- and postwar identity, and wider repertoire of coping strategies, well-being. Veterans' adjustment to chronic physician-diagnosed medical disorders is related to the accommodation of war traumatic experiences within existing self-schemas to restore a sense of continuity between veterans' pre- and postwar identity.

Reversing the Myth? Dystopian narratives of the EU in UKIP and front national discourse

The paper examines the discourse of UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Front National on the EU from the point of view of political myth. It is argued that the discourse of the two Eurosceptic parties reverses the founding myth of the EU as a quasi-utopian haven of peace and prosperity following the traumatic experiences of World War 2, where values such as democracy, freedom and human rights can flourish. In contrast, the Front National and UKIP depict the EU in dystopian terms, as an undemocratic, even totalitarian empire, through comparisons to literary dystopias, Nazi Germany and the former USSR. In this context, the two parties portray themselves as ‘dystopian heroes’ who rebel against the stifling autocratic regime to lead their peoples to a freer, more prosperous and democratic future outside the EU.

Long-Term Guilt and Hostility Underlying Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in War Combatants and Ex-Prisoners of War

ABSTRACTThe link between posttraumatic guilt and posttraumatic stress disorder has gained recognition over the past decades and was recently expressed in the modifications made to the diagnostic criteria for the disorder under the DSM-V. Yet, the psychological dynamics underlying this relation are still not fully understood. The present study introduces a model whereby different dynamics between guilt and hostility are related to posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS), following different traumatic war experiences. One hundred and forty-four former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) and 143 comparable combatants participated in the study, 30 years after the war, reporting on their PTSS, guilt, and hostility. Moderation analyses revealed a three-way interaction, where high hostility buffered the effect of guilt on PTSS only among ex-POWs. This finding suggests a distinctive dynamic among guilt, hostility, and PTSS following diverse traumatic events. Specifically, it appears that hostility can have a mitigating effect on the negative outcomes of guilt for ex-POWs following trauma, but not for non-POW veterans. The theoretical reasoning and the clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

TRAUMA AS CHANCE AND CHALLENGE: HOW TO DRAW BENEFIT FROM MEMORIZED CHILD EXPERIENCES IN WORLD WAR II

Re-experiencing of traumatic memories becomes a social core-phenomenon concerning people of advanced age, and, thus, a core-challenge for coping-strategies. Therefore, adult educators and counselors are looking for an appropriate approach how to help their clients coping with such memories successfully. This study aims to demonstrate one possible approach based on religious coping and on the evaluation of published memories of elder German people (Dierig, 2012; Jakobi & Link, 1997), who remember their childhood shortly after World War II. It also evaluates published studies about this issue concerning their contribution to educational and/or counseling purposes. One main aspect is the comparison between the deferring, collaborative, and self-directing style of religious coping (Pargament, 1997), compared with secular analogies. Another aspect concerns the question, whether religious people are primary intrinsic or extrinsic oriented. In order to find out, why people prefer a particular strategy, an elementary form of grounded theory is chosen, which facilitates particular key categories and terms. The study does neither intend any own empirical research, nor evaluating therapeutic issues, because it is done from a German educational and counseling point of view. Thus, it emphasizes the religious, psychological, and cultural aspects of experiences and coping-strategies of people, who experienced War and post-war time as children in Germany, or of children expelled from Eastern Europe . Key words: child memories, coping strategies, grounded theory, traumatic war experiences.

War, trauma and the militarized body

This article investigates how the contemporary war dispositif in cinematic representations captures and integrates bodies, gestures, space and desire. It focuses on two analytic aspects of this process, suture and interpassivity, and shows how soldiers, in cinematic space, confront trauma that results from an incompatibility between the accelerated speed of military dispositif and the slower rhythms of everyday life. It analyzes the clash between life speeds through three cinematic texts – The Hurt Locker, American Sniper and Good Kill – and clarifies how such disruptions motivate attempts to manage and renegotiate realities fractured by traumatic war experiences. More generally, it analyzes the ways in which war disfigures the phenomenology of bodies and the life world.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and art group therapy: Self-expression of traumatic inner world of war veterans.

Art therapy and drawings may serve as alternative means of expression and release from trauma among veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The retrospective clinical study of drawings of war veterans was performed. A total of 89 war veterans met the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) PTSD criteria and were consecutively admitted to the Day Hospital during 5 years. Art group therapy as part of integrative treatment was performed once a week. The group was open and heterogeneous. Qualitative analysis of drawings content and group protocols were obtained. The drawings were made by free associations. War related themes were explored and descriptive statistics were applied. The most frequent type of common themes of combat stress presented battle and witnessing wounded and killed combatants. Less frequent were themes of graves, destroyed cities and broken trees. The veterans preferred black and red colors with association to death, blood, wounds and destroyed objects. Drawing could provide a unique, complex, visual illustration of war traumatic experiences and memories of posttraumatic stress disorder veterans. Art group discussion might enhance war veterans’ verbal expression due to group support in safe setting. As adjuvant psychotherapy, art group therapy could enrich awareness and the ability of clinicians to treat hard posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms related to uncovered war trauma.

Of Losing Oneself: Bion's Traumatic War Experiences as a Foundation for his Outlook on Psychoanalysis.

Of Losing Oneself: Bion's Traumatic War Experiences as a Foundation for his Outlook on Psychoanalysis.

Exposure to war traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth among nurses in Gaza.

What is known on the subject? This study builds on existing research on war-related factors that may affect health-care staff by particularly focusing on trauma exposure in both professional and everyday life, as well as on correlates of later positive psychological changes. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? It shows that one in five nursing staff working in Gaza experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms within the clinical range, 2 years after an incursion on Gaza and after being exposed to substantial trauma during this period. Participants appeared to develop a variety of post-traumatic growth responses following trauma exposure. Although nurses experienced traumatic events both as civilians and in their health-care capacity, personal exposure was strongly associated with PTSD symptoms. What are the implications for practice? Support to nursing and other health-care professionals in war situations should entail different levels, remain available well after an acute conflict, and take into consideration both personal and practice-related traumatic events. Mental health nursing practitioners can play a pivotal role in this. To establish the association between war traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and post-traumatic growth among nurses in the Gaza Strip, 2 years after an incursion on Gaza, and during a period of ongoing trauma exposure. This study builds on existing evidence by considering exposure to personal and work-related traumatic events, and on factors associated with later positive psychological adaptation. The sample consisted of 274 randomly selected nurses in Gaza who completed the Gaza Traumatic Events Checklist, PTSD Checklist, and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Of the nurses, 19.7% reported full PTSD. There was a significant relationship between traumatic events and PTSD scores; as well as between community-related traumatic events and post-traumatic growth. Participants reported a range of traumatic events, but PTSD and post-traumatic growth scores were more strongly associated with community rather than work-related traumas. Nursing professionals experienced high levels of distress 2 years following an acute period of conflict, both as civilians and in their health-care capacity. There is need for different levels of support for health-care staff in war-affected areas. Mental health nursing professionals have a central role in training, counselling and support to other health-care colleagues.

Pastoral care in the healing of moral injury: A case of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans

This article is in the field of Practical theology with specific reference to pastoral care. The article is motivated by the growing number of conversions of members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ex-combatants/war veterans), through miracle and spiritual healing Ministries under the leadership of Prophets. This article exposes the challenge of injured morals as a result of traumatic war experiences of ex-combatants during the war of liberation from colonialism in Zimbabwe. The violent acts in the political arena in Zimbabwe are linked to the military behaviour of the ex-combatants. This article also makes a critical analysis of the therapeutic narratives from ex-combatants, to conclude that violence in Zimbabwe is highly related to the injured morals of the ex-combatants. The war veterans are finding healing of moral injury from the miracles and exorcisms performed by Prophets.

‘Jumpy Stump’: amputation and trauma in the first world war

This paper focuses on British soldier's experience of amputation, as it was one of the more common and physically traumatic experiences of war. This paper brings together not just the soldier's experience of the physical wounding of amputation, but the emotional experience of traumatic injury. Much of the historiography has separated the physical wound from emotional trauma, and this paper endeavours to bring them together. The experience of amputation and the emotions associated with recovery, fears about employment and loss of social status combined to create anxiety. Emotional reactions to amputation were understood to bring on conditions such as jumpy stump, as a manifestation of repressed trauma. Instead of rejecting this show of emotion as expressed by the stump, orthopaedic surgeons, in the main, accepted the reaction of the stump and worked with the patients to aid them in controlling this manifestation of trauma. In a similar vein to other non-specialists in psychiatry, orthopaedic surgeons in amputation hospitals diagnosed and devised their own methods for dealing with the mentally traumatic aspects of wounding. Healing wounds was of vital importance, and the stump and its repair remained the central focus. The manifestation of emotional trauma was treated as a side-effect of the physical injury, as the body was often more easily cured than the mind. The doctor and the patient's intimate relationship with the stump provided it with a wide range of meanings, constructions and representations.