I huvudet på Försvarsdepartementet : en idéanalys av svensk veteranpolitik

This Bachelor’s thesis was conducted with the purpose of forming a broader foundation of ideas for questions about caring for veterans in Sweden. The problem at hand was identified through reading of readily available and widely cited Swedish research on the subject. This research mainly establishes a narrative in which Swedish veterans are healthy at group level - both compared to the Swedish civilian population and international veteran populations. This thesis does not challenge this conclusion, but considers the causation utilized in the research as problematic. Establishing that Sweden should conduct debate and policy concerning its veterans on contemporary knowledge in the field – this study analyses the most recent policy investigation conducted by the government, SOU2014:27. The main questions concern descriptive ambitions and simply ask what causations these policy documents recognize in describing and curing mental illness among veterans and whether contemporary identity perspectives are represented in these ideas or not. The study is based on Vedung’s ideas of the political idea and utilizes an idea analysis method with ideal types as analytical instruments – a research design strongly guided by Bergström and Boréus. The findings show that Swedish policy is mostly established on traditional ideas concerning mental illness among veterans – although a big part of the policy concerning the involvement of society at large, can be interpreted as identity driven ideas. The main conclusion is that empirics indicate a presence of stigmatizing military identities among Swedish veterans. To truly understand the Swedish veteran population and their well-being, there is an urgent need for further research on this topic in particular