Stepping out of line : constructions of trauma in the UK military

Background: Some research on combat-related trauma suggests that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is socially constructed and mediated by historical, social and political context. PTSD continues to attract controversy, but is often used as a way of understanding combat-related trauma in both military and civilian cultural contexts. However, recent literature suggests that the PTSD label might not be appropriate to represent the variability of expressions of distress in serving and discharged combat personnel. Furthermore, reluctance to seek help amongst this group makes it more difficult to appreciate potential variability in distress responses. Current study: The current study attempts to build on previous work to understand how trauma is constructed according to context and what this enables and disenables amongst a veteran population. Methods: Discourse analysis was carried out on the transcripts of two focus groups comprising four male officer veterans and four male non-officer veterans. Discourse analysis was also carried out on a purposive selection of 8 newspaper articles from the Mail, the Telegraph and the Sun from 2000-2012.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo