Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'War Psychological aspects Fiction'

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-258) Presents readings of six novels which depict something of the nature of war trauma. Collectively, the novels suggest that the attempt to narrativise war trauma is inherently problematic. Traces the disjunctions between narrative and war trauma which ensure that war trauma remains an elusive and private phenomonen; the gulf between private experience and public discourse haunts each of the novels.

Architecture exists as shelter, separating space into the inside and the outside. This separation is a crucial point in our experience of architecture. This separation is the first moment of physical interaction with the construct in our penetration of the construct. However, architecture is not only a physical language. It is nonphysical, in that architecture is defined as the art and science of building, etc. This separation, internally, both produces the architecture as well as the ideas that are produced from the architecture. Architecture is held in-between, the movement or passage from one to the other is perceived as an external transition and an internal passage into the realm of arts and sciences. The mediation in passage from one to the other may be perceived through the dialectic. This allows architecture to contain both external and internal mediation of extremes.
Department of Architecture

A collection of short stories, All Begins to Bloom follows a range of young protagonists living in the greater Los Angeles area. In a time when even the most underground lifestyles are commodified, when Independent media is just another genre, when every mode of living has seemingly been exhausted, these characters struggle to forge an identity in the face of adulthood. From a group of surfers reeling from a careless death ("The Pier") to a young artistic couple brought together by the will to overcome an eating disorder ("All Begins to Bloom"), these stories explore the hollow promises among various subcultures. Instead of finding solace in the possibilities of the future, the narrators often gaze into the past, searching for a lost lesson inside the machinery of an old camera, or a neighbor's memory of the riots of 1992 ("Daydreamers"). Within the confining age of relentless digitization, the fight for human connection is waged. Two brothers, in a string of emails, attempt to make sense of their father's surprising infidelities, exposing the smothered confusions of childhood ("Things Emails Should Not Contain"). In the throes of withdrawal, a young pill-popper is forced to comfort his mother's best friend, a recent widow ("Pharm Boy"). These stories attempt to find an answer to apathy, the unwillingness to care, and to break apart all the defenses one uses to shelter oneself. Whether failing or succeeding, the striving to connect with one another proves to be invigorating.

August Diamond is left lost after the sudden death of her father. The stories in Dance Lessons explore the themes of loss and grief, retreat and return, and finding your true self. The collection is a novel in stories, each story exposing another layer of August's past, her family, and their complicated relationships.

The psychological sequelae of being involved in combat are only recently coming to be understood. Most of the available data are from research conducted on help-seeking Vietnam veterans in the United States, and very little work has been done in South Africa. There does not as yet appear to be any instrument designed specifically to detect combat-related psychopathologies amongst soldiers who are still in active service, either in the USA or in South Africa. Combat involvement has been shown to lead to a high incidence of combat stress reaction. This in turn has shown that it can predispose sufferers to the development of a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thus expected that there would be significantly higher incidences of reported symptoms of stress disorders amongst soldiers exposed to high levels of combat as compared with a similar group of soldiers who had no combat involvement. This study used a self-reporting questionnaire, developed in the USA but adapted for use in South Africa, to allow the soldiers in the study to rate the severity of various symptoms derived from the DSM-III criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. A Beck Depression Inventory was also administered to eliminate any persons who nay have been exhibiting symptoms of depression, as this would have confounded the results. Both questionnaires were administered to serving members of the Permanent Force of the South African Defence Force, with one group being members of various high-combat units based in what was then South West Africa, and the other group being non-combat or Headquarters elements. As a precondition of the study, absolute confidentiality of the respondents and their units was maintained. The study found the expected higher scores in the high-combat group, and also showed that the Keane questionnaire has a good coefficient alpha in South Africa. The study closes with several recommendations for further research, especially in the light of the new PTSD criteria in the DSM-IIIR.

For the past decade or so, a shaky aura of respectability has surrounded the genre of science fiction. Recognition as a branch of literature was late coming to what was, and to some extent still is, a confused form of fiction. Critics are still unable to agree on a definition of science fiction; they are no longer even sure what the letters 'SF' should stand for; they argue about its role, relevance and historical origins, and debate its relationship with 'mainstream' literature. What they do seem to agree on, however, is that science fiction is a form of popular literature that offers an alternative approach to the common concerns of the dominant mode of narrative - realist fiction. Having been relegated to the periphery of 'literature' for so long, the realm of science fiction has been largely unmediated by academic criticism and there is still a tendency for some literary critics to dismiss science fiction as childish, escapist and generally unimportant. Kirpal Singh (1983) explains: Various factors have conspired - and I use the term deliberately - to create problems for sf. As is usual in most areas of human intercourse whenever an apparently new and vigorous subject offers itself for exploration, human beings are wont to put up resistance. The literary fraternity ... have time and again given scant attention to sf. Some critics see sf as an inferior form of literary expression and so do not think it worth their time and energy; sf in their minds is associated with Superman, Bug-Eyed Monsters, and Spaceships. They find all this irritating, or at best amusing. There is a tendency - very often expressed in no uncertain terms - to regard sf as juvenile ... not quite the thing for adults and certainly not suitable for the literary critic. (p.106) Not only science fiction, however, has suffered at the hands of literary critics as has been indicated by Stephen Knight in his book, Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction (1980): Literary criticism has shied away from commercial success as a ground for taking a book seriously. Literary critical skills have not been used to study the interests and needs of mass society: they have been turned inwards in a fully ideological way to gratify and ratify the taste - and needs to - of the highly educated minority who validate their position by displaying a grasp of complicated cultural artifacts. (p.2) Marc Angenot has described 'paraliterature' as occupying "the space outside the literary enclosure, as a forbidden, taboo, and perhaps degraded product; against which the 'self' of literature is forged". (in Parrinder, 1980, p.46) Despite the discriminatory 'high' versus 'low' literary dichotomy, it is becoming less necessary to justify the study of popular literary forms. Recent years have seen a stretching of boundaries resulting in a proliferation of essays that address various forms of popular literature, science fiction included, by people from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives. Most of these studies have approached popular literature as bodies of fictional works with similar themes. They typically focus on such textual elements as plot formula, narrative, characterisation, style and symbolism. Derek Longhurst ( 1989) identifies "a range of largely formalist strategies designed to demonstrate that unlike 'literature', popular fiction was standardized and formulaic, a debased coinage of little 'moral' value, distorting the truths of 'lived experience', time-bound rather than addressing the transhistorical and universal territory of the 'human condition"'. (p.1) Such strategies ignore the actual readers of popular literature and as a result the cultural roles of such texts are not well understood. "A good literary critic should be able to say why a mass-seller works, and how it works. The dismissive certainties of most comments on popular culture do not satisfy these requirements." (Knight, p.2) Popular culture audiences have received quite condescending treatment as many studies have assumed them to be a passive and receptive body upon which ideological content is inflicted. In 1981, Janice Radway, writing about Gothic romances, expressed concern at the lack of theories connecting popular literature and culture: " ... studies characterized by considerable variety in subject matter and method are united by their common assumption that popular literature tends only to reconfirm cultural convention". (p.140) Radway's insistence on shifting attention from isolated texts 'to the complex social event of reading' culminated in her development of an innovative methodology for analysing popular literature and its application to romantic fiction (1984). Having concluded that 'ethnographies of reading' were what was required, Radway set out to discover what it is about romantic fiction that captivates millions of female readers. In Reading the Romance (1984), Radway describes how, instead of focusing on the romantic text alone, she concentrated on the readers' perspective. In distinguishing between the event of reading and the actual text, Radway draws heavily on the work of Stanley Fish (1980) who challenges the notion of text as a fixed object. Although Fish's views imply an impotency of the actual text that deserves to be questioned, his identification of the informed reader as part of an interpretive community that agrees upon interpretive conventions is extremely important. Richard Johnson (1986) advocates the connection of readings with 'lived culture' and the necessity to study the readers' milieu (p.285). While acknowledging the importance of textual analysis, Johnson questions its competence to handle an 'inter-discursive reality of reading'. Longhurst describes this emergence of involvement of the reader as an emphasis on reading 'textuality' rather than the reading of self-contained texts (p.5). It is Radway's model for popular literature analysis that lays the groundwork for this present study, which focuses on the nature of the relationship between science fiction readers and the science fiction text. The objective of this research is to gain a greater understanding of what motivates people to read a particular type of text and to strive toward an explanation for the genre's popularity. Some of the questions to be explored are: what do the readers find particularly interesting and enjoyable about these texts?; what are their criteria for distinguishing between 'good' and 'bad' texts?; and to what extent does the collective enthusiasm exhibited by some readers of science fiction affect the content of science fiction texts? For Radway's Smithton readers, the event of reading was considered more important than any particular novel encountered in the process. Similarly, this study will reveal that reading texts as a member of the science fiction community is more important to the readers than are the individual texts themselves. 'Fandom' is central to science fiction. In a genre long neglected by outside commentators, science fiction fandom has established its own standards of quality (Lundwall, 1971, p.227). Commenting on the social universe of fandom, author Roger Zelazny (1975) writes: ... science fiction is unique in possessing a fandom and convention system which make for personal contacts between authors and readers, a situation which may be of peculiar significance. When an author is in a position to meet and speak with large numbers of his readers he cannot help, at least for a little while, feeling somewhat as oldtime story-tellers must have felt in facing the questions and the comments of a live audience. The psychologbe given some consideration as an influence on the field. (p.11) This subculture of fandom peculiar to science fiction attracts hordes of devotees world-wide. They set up clubs, edit magazines, share a shorthand language of fandom, attend science fiction conventions and take their place in a vast network of correspondence. Ursula Le Guin identifies "a ready audience - ready to discuss and to defend and to attack and to argue with each other and with the artist, to the irritation of and the entertainment and the benefit of them all" (1975). Bob Tucker describes the science fiction phenomenon as "a network of infinite self-analysis and mutual support which is quite unparalleled even in Alcoholics Anonymous" (1975). Such descriptions highlight the existence of an active, socially important subculture. The very nature and extent of communication within the science fiction community, particularly the relatively enormous amount of feedback science fiction writers receive from readers, makes it appear simplistic to explain the proliferation of the different variations of the science fiction literary form as a preoccupation of writers alone. "In the democratic, if incestuous, processes of this subculture, SF readers are more vocal than those of other popular forms, and as a consequence, exercise some influence over writers and publishers." (Mellor, 1984) According to Linda Fleming (1978), in an article titled "The American SF Subculture", A SF subculture originated, developed, and exists today because of the enthusiasm SF arouses in some people, the subsequent commercial exploitation of that enthusiasm, and because both professionals and readers have found belonging to a group a socially rewarding experience for brief or long periods of their lives. (p.290) Fleming prompts the investigation of this network which mediates the reading experience for so many readers and has done so for many years. Sheical process involved in this should poses questions about fandom and the nature of people's involvement in science fiction that have yet to be answered adequately by research. This study will illuminate several of these, accepting Fleming's assertion that modern science fiction cannot be fully understood without understanding the subculture in which so much of it evolved. In order to account for the existence of modern science fiction and its many themes, a review of the field of science fiction will include a brief history of the genre and its followers. The Australian science fiction scene will be examined so that the primary research can be considered in context. Central to this study are the members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club who, as survey respondents, have expressed what it is to be part of Australian science fiction fandom as no external critic can. The Melbourne Science Fiction Club was chosen to take part in the survey for several reasons: Melbourne is recognised as the centre of Australian science fiction fandom; the Club has a history longer than most others in Australia (it was formed in 1953); the Club meets every week and produces a bimonthly publication; it is a 'general' club, that is, not concerned solely with one particular strand of science fiction, like Star Trek movies; and, most importantly, the members were willing participants. Obviously, members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club do not constitute a random representative sample of readers of the science fiction genre. They did, however, present an excellent opportunity to test questionnaire design and sample a slice of science fiction's active readership. The survey of readers is supplemented with content analysis of their Club 'fanzine', Ethel the Aardvark, and science fiction texts are discussed as the products of interpretation. Of the great variety of science fiction narrative types, disaster novels are identified as possessing a formula that has proved particularly durable. Discussion of several disaster texts that illustrate the modern evolution of this formula reveals many of science fiction's icons and oppositions that promote regularities in textual readings. While the questionnaire follows a similar format to that designed by Radway, it has proved more appropriate to tap science fiction fandom's correspondence and fanzine network than to hold in-depth discussions with Club members as Radway was able to arrange with the Smithton readers. Science fiction fandom's preference and, indeed, exuberance, for written communication has compensated for some of the problems inherent in being distanced from survey respondents. The reason for choosing to follow Radway's method, aside from its wide acclaim as a useful model for future literary research, is an interest in applying her approach to another genre of popular literature. Radway offers a way of connecting the analysis of texts and structural insights with study of the readers in the texts' wider socio-cultural context. The nature of repetitive reading of various types of science fiction texts becomes particularly interesting when it is considered that fans may be equally, if not more, submerged in science fiction fandom than they are in science fiction.

Set in rural Kansas, this story follows the lives of Jonathan Tate, his sister Lily Anne Tate, and their father, up until his death, Hershall Tate. They are an isolated family, seemingly living outside of time. John opens the novel with a walk into town to set the contrast between him and the rest of the world. Time is the theme and essence, because every scene and the tone of the scenes are weighted by the imminence of Hershall's death. He is dying slowly and so their lives move slowly. Lily can't help but be ornery, while John, assuming all the chores and anxiety of the future without his father, is reserved and reluctant. Hershall is set in his ways and not in a hurry to get the house in order before his death. There is the old-fashioned nature of Hershall, the isolated nature of the whole family, and the rest of the modern world to contend with. These beginning pages are setting up the next stage of the novel where Lily and John begin their journey after their father's death.

There are many factors that contributed to the proliferation of visual codes, metaphors and references to the gendered gaze in women's fiction of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This thesis argues that the visual details in women's novels published between 1778 and 1815 are more significant than scholars have previously acknowledged. My analysis of the oeuvres of Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth and Fanny Burney shows that visuality — the nexus between the verbal and visual communication — provided them with a language within language capable of circumventing the cultural strictures on female expression in a way that allowed for concealed resistance. It conveyed the actual ways in which women ‘should' see and appear in a society in which the reputation was image-based. My analysis journeys through physiognomic, psychological, theatrical and codified forms of visuality to highlight the multiplicity of its functions. I engage with scholarly critiques drawn from literature, art, optics, psychology, philosophy and anthropology to assert visuality's multidisciplinary influences and diplomatic potential. I show that in fiction and in actuality, women had to negotiate four scopic forces that determined their ‘looks' and manners of looking: the impartial spectator, the male gaze, the public eye and the disenfranchised female gaze. In a society dominated by ‘frustrated utterance,' penetrating gazes and the perpetual threat of misinterpretation, women novelists used references to the visible and the invisible to comment on emotions, socio-economic conditions and patriarchal abuses. This thesis thus offers new insights into verbal economy by reassessing expression and perception from an unconventional point-of-view.

This thesis describes the development of psychological operations capabilities, introduction of forces, and the employment in Vietnam during the period 1960-1965. The complex interplay of these activities is addressed, as well as the development of PSYOP doctrine and training in the period prior to the introduction of ground combat forces in 1965. The American PSYOP advisory effort supported the South Vietnamese at all levels, providing access to training, material support, and critical advice. In these areas the American effort was largely successful. Yet, instability in the wake of President Ngo Dinh Diem's overthrow created an impediment to the ability of psychological operations to change behaviors and positively affect the outcome.

This thesis deals with the loss experienced by all participants in adoption, especially during the period 1950 to 1980 and with particular, but not exclusive, reference to the birth mother and her child. The work is in two parts, the first being a contemporary novel, 'Heartlines', written in the form of a fictional memoir from the point of view of a woman in her early forties who suddenly is confronted with the daughter she relinquished twenty years previously, and whose existence she has kept secret from her husband. The novel deals with the difficult relationship that develops between mother ann daughter and the adjustments the main character must make in her realisation that the young woman who has come back into her life is not the person she had imagined her to be during the years since she was forced to give her up for adoption. Part Two is an essay that puts into context the cultural background of the period studied, the stigmatisation of women who bore ex-nuptial children and how the society in which they lived left them few options other than to abandon their infants to strangers. It deals with the consequences for young women following a lapse of judgement that would have repercussions for the rest of their lives. Many of the women who relinquished babies during the period are believed to have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experience, and remained in an ongoing state of pathological grief.

Between 1960 and 1968 the United States conducted intensive psychological operations (PSYOP) in Vietnam. To date, no comprehensive study of the psychological war there has been conducted. This dissertation fills that void, describing the development of American PSYOP forces and their employment in Vietnam. By looking at the complex interplay of American, North Vietnamese, National Liberation Front (NLF) and South Vietnamese propaganda programs, a deeper understanding of these activities and the larger war emerges. The time period covered is important because it comprises the initial introduction of American PSYOP advisory forces and the transition to active participation in the war. It also allows enough time to determine the long-term effects of both the North Vietnamese/NLF and American/South Vietnamese programs. Ending with the 1968 Tet Offensive is fitting because it marks both a major change in the war and the establishment of the 4th Psychological Operations Group to manage the American PSYOP effort. This dissertation challenges the argument that the Northern/Viet Cong program was much more effective that the opposing one. Contrary to common perceptions, the North Vietnamese propaganda increasingly fell on deaf ears in the south by 1968. This study also provides support for understanding the Tet Offensive as a desperate gamble born out of knowledge the tide of war favored the Allies by mid-1967. The trend was solidly towards the government and the NLF increasingly depended on violence to maintain control. The American PSYOP forces went to Vietnam with little knowledge of the history and culture of Vietnam or experience conducting psychological operations in a counterinsurgency. As this dissertation demonstrates, despite these drawbacks, they had considerable success in the period covered. Although facing an experienced enemy in the psychological war, the U.S. forces made great strides in advising, innovating techniques, and developing equipment. I rely extensively on untapped sources such as the Foreign Broadcast Information Service transcripts, Captured Document Exploitation Center files, and access to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Archives. Additionally, I have digitized databases such as the Hamlet Evaluation System and Terrorist Incident Reporting System for Geographic Information System software analysis. The maps provide examples of the possibilities available to the historian using these datasets.

The purpose of this study was to provide a clear conceptualization of how Vietnam veterans who have previously been diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) respond and cope with the emotional and psychological effects presented by the present war in Iraq.

The purpose of the study was to investigate if a relationship exists between levels of combat experienced by Vietnam veterans and later perceptions of violence, violent attitudes, and violent participants: heavy combat Vietnam veterans; light combat Vietnam veterans; Vietnam era veterans; and non-veteran (civilian) friends of Vietnam veterans.Calvert's Brief Demographic Questionnaire (BDQ), Part 2, checked pre-military predisposition toward having later problems; Figley's Combat Experience Questionnaire (CEO) divided Vietnam combat veterans into heavy and light categories; Wilson's Vietnam Veteran Scenario and Questionnaire examined perceptions of violence by Vietnam veterans; Bardis' A Violence Scale investigated violent attitudes; and Straus' Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales (adapted) measured behavioral violence. The .05 level of statistical significance was used.Findings1. None of the four groups were predisposed to having later problems as measured by Calvert's BDO, Part 2.2. There were no significant differences among groups in perceiving the Vietnam veteran in Wilson's Scenario as being violent.3. Bardis' scale indicated no group differences in terms of having violent attitudes.4. Vietnam combat veterans did not score significantly higher on a majority <6 of 10) of CT Scale items measuring violent behavior.Conclusions1. Based upon the results of this study, any problems Vietnam combat veterans might have with violence seem unrelated to their pre-military experiences. Also, their experiences in Vietnam may or may not be related to later violent behavior.2. Previous combat may lower the threshold in perceiving violence.3. Levels of combat appear to be unrelated to later violent attitudes.4. Neither heavy nor light combat Vietnam veterans appear to engage in violent behavior more than their peers.Recommendations1. Future studies should continue to utilize Figley's Combat Experience Scale and Straus' Conflict Tactics Scales (adapted) as standard tools in Vietnam veteran research.2. Future research should include a check of pre-military predisposition.3. It is recommended that future research utilize a larger Vietnam veteran sample to see: (1) if heavy combat veterans will then score significantly higher on a behavioral violence measure; and (2) if Vietnam era veterans will outscore light combat vets, and, if so, why?

Inside Story explores the essence of story and attempts to connect the audience to the significance of story in their own lives. The documentary examines story and determines the elements necessary for its formation. The film investigates the psychological aspects of story, inspects the physiological processing of story that connects story to the way we think and perceive, and finally, emphasizes the functions and values of story.

This project investigated the relations between recalled job-satisfaction, ability, and task demands in Vietnam era helicopter aviators. It attempted to detect and describe factors present in a dangerous combat environment which may influence some individuals to enjoy and take satisfaction at being exposed to, creating, and participating in the dangerous and life threatening violence involved in helicopter combat. Participants were 30 pilots and crew members retired from the 335th Assault Helicopter Company who were all actively involved in combat in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. This study found that developing a love of war is correlated with anger during combat. The love of war is not correlated with PTSD processes nor is it correlated with specific personality dimensions. The love of war research is a new area. The questions were used to operationalize the love of war represent a significant limitation. This method of operationalizing the love of war concept does not make fine discriminations has questionable content validity. To facilitate accuracy in discriminating between participants when conducting future research in the area, researchers could benefit from constructing a measure with greater content validity.

This work is a critical assessment of the role of neuropsychiatry in the management of aerial warfare. Focussing almost exclusively on the Second World War (1939-45), the thesis demonstrates how the Royal Air Force (RAF) mobilised specialist medical knowledge to improve wastage and combat efficiency in flying personnel. Neurological and psychiatric expertise was enlisted to improve service performance and reduce the burden of neuropsychiatric disorders. To meet these key objectives, the RAF neuropsychiatric division undertook important administrative and therapeutic duties in the areas of personnel selection, service discipline, neuropsychiatric research, and the treatment of mental disorders. The work therefore assesses how the division responded to these challenges and contributed to the management of aerial warfare. The thesis assesses the factors that shaped the practice of neuropsychiatry in the service. Historically, the training and personal interests of specialists and the context of therapeutic practice guided the development of mental health specialties. To gain a fuller appreciation of the administrative and therapeutic duties of the division, this work explores the medical, social, military, and professional factors that shaped neuropsychiatric thought and practice. Secondly, the work engages with the 'human element' of aerial combat. The physical and mental health of aircrew was fundamental to the conduct of the air war and underpinned the administrative decisions of the air force. It was the primary objective of the neuropsychiatric division to preserve and develop these vital human resources. Neuropsychiatric disorders represented a challenge to efficiency, for they could affect the performance and motivation of a flyer. The thesis will examine how the neuropsychiatric division attempted to sustain aircrew by preventing and treating the disorders that compromised their efficiency.

This study has presented a comprehensive overview of the origins of modern British and American military psychiatry, chiefly in response to World War I shell shock. The study examined the state of British psychiatry during the nineteenth century, as the new railroads, mines, and factories produced accident victims with post-traumatic stress disorders. As World War I began, psychoanalysis was in its infancy, and most British psychiatrists faced with a victim of shell shock fell back on an eclectic mix of treatments, including electro-shock therapy, hot baths, massages, moral persuasion, lectures, exhortation, etc. While a few British and American psychiatrists practiced either psychotherapy or disciplinary methods exclusively, the majority of practitioners used a variety of methods, depending on the doctor's point of view and the circumstances of the case at, hand. Psychotherapeutic developments in the inter-war period are also explored and discussed.
Department of History

Gestalt psychologists Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler argue that human perception relies on a form, or gestalt, into which perceptions are assimilated. Gestalt theory has been applied to the visual arts by Rudolf Arnheim and to literature by Wolfgang Iser. My original contribution to knowledge is to use gestalt theory to perform literary criticism, an approach that highlights the importance of perception in William Gibson's novels and the impact of this emphasis on posthumanism and science fiction studies. Science fiction addresses the problem of difference and the relationship between self and other. Gestalt literary criticism takes perception as the interface between the self and the other, the human and the inhuman. Gibson's work is of particular interest as his early novels are representative of 1980s cyberpunk while his later novels push the boundaries of science fiction through their contemporary settings. By engaging with Gibson the thesis makes its contribution to contemporary science fiction criticism explicit. In Gibson's Sprawl trilogy autopoiesis defines life and consciousness, elevating the importance of perception (Chapter I). The Bridge trilogy uses the metaphor of chaos theory to examine dialectic tensions, such as the tension between space and cyberspace (Chapter II). Faulty pattern recognition is a key theme in Gibson's post-9/11 work as gestalt perception allows and limits knowledge (Chapter III). Chapter IV explains how the gestalt in psychoanalysis creates a fragmented subject in Spook Country (2007). Finally, the gestalt appears as a parallax view, a view that oscillates between the world we experience and the world as represented in the text (Chapter V). I conclude that gestalt literary criticism offers an exciting new reading of Gibson's work that recognises its engagement with visual culture and cyberpunk as a whole.

Techronomicon Techronomicon is a science fiction novel that examines far-future military actions from several different perspectives. Human beings have colonized several planets with help from the enigmatic and more technologically advanced Zhir, who gave spaceships and habitable worlds to those they deemed suitable and their descendants. The Joint Expeditionary Force is the military arm of the Universal Faith, called in when conflicts arise that the Faith decides are beyond the local government and militia and require their intervention. Leneveldt and Roader are JEF officers assigned to Operation Techronomicon, investigating what seems to be a Zhir-built defence shield around the planet Lassana. Another JEF company sent to Kalaabhavan after the murder of the planets Confessor-General loses its CO to a land-mine, and Lieutenant Hellerman reluctantly accepts command. Chevalier, a civilian pilot, takes refugees fleeing military-run detention camps on Ararat to a biological research station on otherwise uninhabited Lila. The biologists on Lila discover a symbiote that enables humans to photosynthesize, which comes to the attention of Operation Techronomicon and the JEF's Weapons Research Division. Leneveldt and Roeder, frustrated by the lack of progress on Lassana, are sent to Lila to detain the biologists, who flee into the swamps. Hellerman's efforts to restore peace on Kalaabhavan are frustrated by the Confessors, and his company finds itself besieged by insurgents. The novel explores individuals' motives for choosing or rejecting violence and/or military service; the lessons they learn about themselves and their enemies; and the possible results of attempts to forcibly suppress ideas.

This thesis will highlight a number of traumatic memories chronologically in the history of this city. The Versailles Conference will be the beginning of the tale of these two cities in the first chapter, Danzig before 1945. The history of the interwar years reveals a severe rift between Poland and Weimar Germany over the Free city of Danzig. German memory would remember the city 's nazification, the invasion by Germany and even the relative safety during the war as traumatic through a general feeling that Nazism had been forced upon German Danzigers, resulting in their own versions of victimhood.

The objective of this study was to examine the relations between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder symptomatology and intelligence. Thirty American combat veterans of the Vietnam War, diagnosed with chronic PTSD, were given a psychodiagnostic structured interview. Participants were assessed for Intelligence Quotient as well as the veracity of their self report. The study found that there were significant differences in how participants experienced their PTSD symptoms that were correlated with intelligence. The higher IQ participants reported more frequent and intense guilt related symptoms as well as more intense intrusive recollections. The lower IQ participants experienced more frequent startle responses, more intense problems related to falling or remaining asleep and more frequent affective symptoms related to emotional numbing. Psychologists could use these differences in how PTSD is experienced in treatment planning. It may be useful for therapy to address sleep disturbances and affective numbing in lower IQ individuals. Therapy for higher IQ individuals may be more useful if it addresses feelings of guilt and intrusive recollections.

As the written accompaniment for The Luxury of Tears, a twelve-minute documentary video exploring the emotional impact of sexual assault on male survivors and their partners, this document examines the visual texts of both the fiction and nonfiction genres. Specifically, I contend that fiction film manufactures male survivorship with regard to rape events in such manner which contributes to the thematization of social silence. Such silence perpetuates the feminization of rape as a social problem, and dissolves the development of male survivor resources. A discussion of production processes, challenges, and resolutions is included.

This thesis explores the impact of home front and battlefield morale on Texas's civilian and military population during the Civil War. It addresses the creation, maintenance, and eventual surrender of Confederate nationalism and identity among Texans from five different counties: Colorado, Dallas, Galveston, Harrison, and Travis. The war divided Texans into three distinct groups: civilians on the home front, soldiers serving in theaters outside of the state, and soldiers serving within Texas's borders. Different environments, experiences, and morale affected the manner in which civilians and soldiers identified with the Confederate war effort. This study relies on contemporary letters, diaries, newspaper reports, and government records to evaluate how morale influenced national dedication and loyalty to the Confederacy among various segments of Texas's population.

Over the past 15 years, mental health professionals have seen an increasing number of Vietnam combat veterans suffering from stress disorders resulting from the trauma of combat and continued exposure to life threatening situations. Prior to 1980, professional repudiation of and hostility toward Vietnam veterans and toward a clinical reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was common while nondiagnosis and nontreatment was prevalent

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The present research aimed to understand the psychological effects on young people, resulting from traumatic events of the war in Angola. The following questions were researched: what were the traumatic experiences of war that the youth experienced, and how the war events affected and impacted their lives today. With respect to the research method, a qualitative study was done. For the survey data collection, two instruments were used: a self-completed questionnaire and drawings about the experience of war. The participants were high school students of the Santa Maria Goretti Missionary School in N'dalatando, capital of the Province of Kwanza Norte, Angola. 99 students, of both sexes, agenda between 16 and 26, participated in the study. The data were entered and analyzed in SPHINX software, aided by Excel and Word Cloud. The data were analyzed in the light of the specialized literature and organized into categories. The research was submitted and authorized by the Research and Ethics Committee, under the number of Opinion 2,071,586 and CAAE: 67127917.0.0000.5482. The results revealed that the participants, in their majority, the children, went through experiences of personal suffering, of their families, friends and even strangers. They saw people killed, mutilated, mistreated, psychologically and physically tortured, attacked and destroyed. There have also been several deprivations, such as hunger, thirst, lack of shelter and basic health care. They have pointed to various consequences of psychological and physical trauma, underdevelopment, in all dimensions of life, and marked moments of difficult overcoming and forgetfulness that impact their lives today. They expressed feelings of loss, irritability, sadness, fear, guilt, revolt, indifference, resentment, grief, disgust, abandonment, loneliness, repentance, hurt, hatred, anguish and pain
A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender os efeitos psicológicos em jovens, decorrentes de eventos traumáticos da guerra em Angola. Foram pesquisadas as seguintes questões: quais foram as experiências traumáticas de guerra que os jovens vivenciaram, e como os eventos de guerra afetaram e afetam a vida destes hoje. Em relação ao método de pesquisa, foi feito um estudo qualitativo. Para o levantamento dos dados da pesquisa, foram utilizados dois instrumentos: um questionário autopreenchido e desenhos sobre a vivência da guerra. Os participantes foram alunos do ensino médio da Escola Missionária Santa Maria Goretti em N’dalatando, capital da Província do Kwanza Norte, Angola. Participaram do estudo 99 alunos, de ambos os sexos, com idade entre 16 e 26 anos. Os dados foram inseridos e analisados no software SPHINX, auxiliado pelo Excel e Nuvem de Palavras. Os dados foram analisados à luz da literatura especializada e organizados em categorias. A pesquisa foi submetida e autorizada pelo Comitê de Pesquisa e Ética, sob o Número do Parecer 2.071.586 e CAAE: 67127917.0.0000.5482. Os resultados revelaram que os participantes, na sua a maioria, enquanto crianças, passaram por experiências de sofrimento pessoal, das suas famílias, amigos e até de desconhecidos. Viram pessoas mortas, mutiladas, maltratadas, torturadas psicológica e fisicamente, ataques e destruições. Passaram também diversas privações, tais como: fome, sede, falta de abrigo e de cuidados básicos de saúde. Apontaram diversas consequências de trauma psicológico e físico, o subdesenvolvimento, em todas as dimensões da vida e, momentos marcantes de difícil superação e esquecimento que impactam a sua vida hoje. Expressaram sentimentos de perda, irritabilidade, tristeza, medo, culpa, revolta, indiferença, ressentimento, aflição, desgosto, abandono, solidão, arrependimento, mágoa, ódio, angústia e dor

Focusing on the legacies of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), this thesis challenges the perception that this was the ‘war without a name’ by exploring the ways in which memories have been preserved, mobilised, and transmitted by those who experienced the conflict, but who have generally operated under the radar of public consciousness. In particular, it examines the pieds-noirs, the former European settlers of Algeria, and the harkis, Algerians who fought for the French as auxiliaries during the war. Finding their lives in Algeria untenable upon independence, both populations migrated en masse to France where they have organised collectively as diaspora communities to challenge the hegemony of official narratives in order to legitimate their own interpretations of this contentious past. The purpose of such an investigation is to re-evaluate the conventional historical periodisation of a ‘forgotten’ war that made a dramatic return to public attention during the 1990s by revealing a continual presence of memory and commemorative activity within these communities. Through consultation of a wide range of sources, including extensive use of previously neglected audiovisual material, the historical recollections of these two communities are reconstructed in detail and examined from a comparative perspective. This thesis also seeks to analyse and historicize the present guerres de mémoire phenomenon whereby as the public profile of the war has risen in recent years, the different historical interpretations held by groups such as the pieds-noirs and harkis have increasingly come into open conflict, particularly over the issue of commemoration with each seeking to see their version of the past enshrined in official rituals and monuments. Finally, the thesis offers new historical context intended to contribute to enhancing understanding of the ongoing process by which France continues to ‘face up’ to its colonial past and deal with the complex contemporary legacies of this era.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is asswned that events during the border war (SWAI Angola) had an influencelimpact on the lives of soldiers who took part in it. Some experiences have become embedded in their memories and are reflected in yams about such episodes and anecdotes that constitute a wealth of oral art. From a cultural history point of view, these therefore deserve to be recorded and conserved. The study interprets the narratives against the background of the border war and determines the relationship between these stories and the influence of the war on the lives of soldiers. Examples of war hwnour are grouped into stories about personal hygiene, misunderstandings, boyish pranks, practical jokes and other humorous incidents. As in any war, soldiers were confronted with unpleasant experiences such as bad news from home, the death of comrades and the enemy, adventures with wild animals and the loss of pets. Tales about soldiers' experiences during contact with the enemy allow one to gain insight into the functioning of the human mind. These stories are grouped into heroic deeds, narrow escapes and feelings experienced in contact with the enemy. As far as is known, no legends had their origin in the border war, but stories about quite a few legendary characters are told. Stories about helicopter pilots and trackers might eventually develop into legends, because of the fearlessness and skill of these people. Myths are stories originating in folkbelief, in which God or the gods play an important role. However, stories from the border war about chaplains and religion are not myths, but tales about personal experience with a religious inclination. It is clear from the narratives that religion played an important role in the lives of soldiers and that they had a child-like trust in a Supreme Being. Leaders, trackers and helicopter pilots were identified as important people in soldiers' battle for survival. They also had a need of female company and the presence of women. Pets played a significant role in allowing them to express their emotions. Each soldier experienced confrontation with death and the enemy in his own unique manner. In spite of hardships, many tales of a humorous nature were told. This can be regarded as a way of dealing and coping with unpleasant experiences.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die veronderstelling is dat gebeure gedurende die grensoorlog (SW AI Angola) In invloed/impak op die soldate wat daaraan deelgeneem het, se lewens gehad het. Sekere ervarings is in hulle geheue vasgele en kom in die vorm van belewenisvertellings en staaltjies na Yore, wat In ryke skat van volkswoordkuns bied. Dit verdien daarom om vanuit In kultuurhistoriese oogpunt opgeteken en bewaar te word. Die studie vertolk die vertellings teen die agtergrond van die grensoorlog en bepaal die verband tussen die vertellings en die invloed van die oorlog op die lewens van soldate. Voorbeelde van oorlogshumor word gegroepeer in verhale wat handel oor persoonlike higiene, misverstande, kwajongstreke, poetse en ander humoristiese insidente. Soos in enige oorlog, is soldate gekonfronteer met onaangename wedervarings soos slegte nuus van die huis af, die dood van makkers en die vyand, wedervarings met wilde diere en die verlies van troeteldiere. Vertellings oor soldate se ervarings tydens kontak met die vyand verleen insig in die werking van die menslike gees en is gegroepeer in heldedade, noue ontkomings en gevoelens wat ervaar is in kontak met die vyand. Sover bekend bestaan daar nie legendes uit die grensoorlog nie, maar daar is van In hele paar legendariese karakters vertel. Vanwee hulle onverskrokkenheid en vemuf kan verhale oor helikoptervlieeniers en spoorsnyers met verloop van tyd legendes word. Mites is verhale wat uit die volksgeloof spruit en waarin God of gode Inbelangrike rol speel. Verhale uit die grensoorlog wat handel oor kapelane en godsdiens, is egter nie mites nie maar belewenisvertellings met In godsdienstige strekking. Uit die vertellings blyk dit dat godsdiens In belangrike rol in die lewens van soldate gespeel het en dat daar In kinderlike vertroue in In Hoer Hand was. Leiersfigure, spoorsnyers en helikoptervlieeniers is geidentifiseer as belangrike persone in soldate se oorlewingstryd. Daar was ook In behoefte aan vroulike geselskap en teenwoordigheid. Troeteldiere het In belangrike rol gespeel om uiting te gee aan emosies. Soldate het konfrontasie met die dood en die vyand elkeen op sy eie unieke manier beleef. Ten spyte van ontberings, is daar heelwat verhale met In humoristiese strekking vertel en dit kan beskou word as In manier om onaangename ervarings te hanteer en te verwerk.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 239-289.
Introduction -- Fantastic metamorphosis as childhood 'otherness' -- The metamorphic growth of wings : deviant development and adolescent hybridity -- Tenors of maturation: developing powers and changing identities -- Changing representations of werewolves: ideologies of racial and ethnic otherness -- The desire for transcendence: jouissance in selkie narratives -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendix: "The great Silkie of Sule Skerry": three versions.
My central thesis is that fantastic motifs work on a metaphorical level to encapsulate and express ideologies that have frequently been naturalised as 'truths'. I develop a theory of motif metaphors in order to examine the ideologies generated by the fantastic motif of metamorphosis in a range of contemporary children's and young adult fantasy texts. Although fantastic metamorphosis is an exceptionally prevalent and powerful motif in children's and young adult fantasy literature, symbolising important ideas about change and otherness in relation to childhood, adolescence, and maturation, and conveying important ideologies about the world in which we live, it has been little analysed in children's literature criticism. The detailed analyses of particular metamorphosis motif metaphors in this study expand and refine our academic understanding of the metamorphosis figure and consequently provide insight into the underlying principles and particular forms of a variety of significant ideologies.
By examining several principal metamorphosis motif metaphors I investigate how a number of specific cultural beliefs are constructed and represented in contemporary children's and young adult fantasy literature. I particularly focus upon metamorphosis as a metaphor for childhood otherness; adolescent hybridity and deviant development; maturation as a process of self-change and physical empowerment; racial and ethnic difference and otherness; and desire and jouissance. I apply a range of pertinent cultural theories to explore these motif metaphors fully, drawing on the interpretive frameworks most appropriate to the concepts under consideration. I thus employ general psychoanalytic theories of embodiment, development, language, subjectivity, projection, and abjection; poststructuralist, social constructionist, and sociological theories; and wide-ranging literary theories, philosophical theories, gender and feminist theories, race and ethnicity theories, developmental theories, and theories of fantasy and animality. The use of such theories allows for incisive explorations of the explicit and implicit ideologies metaphorically conveyed by the motif of metamorphosis in different fantasy texts.
In this study, I present a number of specific analyses that enhance our knowledge of the motif of fantastic metamorphosis and of significant cultural ideologies. In doing so, I provide a model for a new and precise approach to the analysis of fantasy literature.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
[12], 294 p

This study examines the phenomenon of abusive violence (AV) in the context of the American Post-9/11 Counter-terrorism and Counter-insurgency campaigns. Previous research into atrocities by states and their agents has largely come from examinations of totalitarian regimes with well-developed torture and assassination institutions. The mechanisms influencing willingness to do harm have been examined in experimental studies of obedience to authority and the influences of deindividuation, dehumanization, context and system. This study used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine the lived experience of AV reported by fourteen American military and intelligence veterans. Participants were AV observers, objectors, or abusers. Subjects described why AV appeared sensible at the time, how methods of violence were selected, and what sense they made of their experiences after the fact. Accounts revealed the roles that frustration, fear, anger and mission pressure played to prompt acts of AV that ranged from the petty to heinous. Much of the AV was tied to a shift in mission view from macro strategic aims of CT and COIN to individual and small group survival. Routine hazing punishment soldiers received involving forced exercise and stress positions made similar acts inflicted on detainees unrecognizable as abusive. Overt and implied permissiveness from military superiors enabled AV extending to torture, and extra-judicial killings. Attempting to overcome feelings of vulnerability, powerlessness and rage, subjects enacted communal punishment through indiscriminate beatings and shooting. Participants committed AV to amuse themselves and humiliate their enemies; some killed detainees to force confessions from others, conceal misdeeds, and avoid routine paperwork. Participants realized that AV practices were unnecessary, counter-productive, and self-damaging. Several reduced or halted their AV as a result. The lived experience of AV left most respondents feeling guilt, shame, and inadequacy, whether they committed abuse or failed to stop it.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-258)
258 leaves ; 30 cm.
Presents readings of six novels which depict something of the nature of war trauma. Collectively, the novels suggest that the attempt to narrativise war trauma is inherently problematic. Traces the disjunctions between narrative and war trauma which ensure that war trauma remains an elusive and private phenomonen; the gulf between private experience and public discourse haunts each of the novels.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2001

Ten men participated in this study; all had fathers who served six months or more in active combat during World War II. Each son was asked about his relationship with his father specific to the father's combat experience. Each interview was audiotaped and transcribed. From each transcribed interview a narrative was developed representing the life story of growing up with a combat veteran father. Reading across all ten narratives, eight themes were extracted that were consistent for seven to ten of the participants. Two follow-up questions were later asked of each participant. These questions were also taped and transcribed and formulated into themes. The four most important themes were: avoiding the topic of combat, emotional distancing, father's perceived change in personality because of the war, and wanting to have more intimate time with their fathers growing up. Fifty-five years after the end of World War II there remains a residual effect on these sons. It is anticipated that this research will assist Canada's Peacekeepers in adjusting to their civilian life as they raise their families.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment for the degree of M. A. (Clinical Psychology).
The Impact of political violence on the psychological well-being of civilian populations has received much attention. both locally and internationally. In South Africa, the effects on black children of having witnessed or experienced violence has been extensively researched; however. the impact on white children, albeit that the majority of them are removed from the immediacy of the violence, has not been investigated.(Abbreviation abstract)
Andrew Chakane 2018

This volume critically examines what happens when war formally ends, the difficult and complex challenges and opportunities for winning the peace and reconciling divided communities. By reviewing a case study of the West African state of Sierra Leone, potential lessons for other parts of the world can be gained. Sierra Leone has emerged as a 'successful' model of liberal peacebuilding that is now popularly advertised and promoted by the international community as a powerful example of a country that they finally got right. Concerns about how successful a model Sierra Leone actually is, are outlined in this project. As such this volume: provides a critical understanding of the nature, dynamics and complexity of post-war peacebuilding and development from an internal perspective; critically assesses the role and contribution of the international community to state reconstruction and post-war peacebuilding and evaluates what happens when war ends; and explores the potential relevance and impact of comparative international efforts of post-war state building and reconstruction in other parts of Africa and the world. The collection focuses not only on understanding the root causes of conflict but also identifying and appreciating the possibilities and opportunities for peace. The lessons found in this book resonate well beyond the borders of Sierra Leone and Africa in general.

Cognitive processes have been shown to be severely affected by exposure to combat and war. While the negative impact of war on cognitive performance is apparent through numerous soldier narratives, the scientific investigation of this phenomenon is limited. Furthermore, the moderating influence of an individual’s resilience and grit on cognitive functions following combat environments is unknown. Understanding this interaction is essential in further understanding individual cognitive performance. Because the psychological wounds inflicted by combat situations affect individuals’ mental health, studying how such environments influence cognitive processes and performance can improve the training of our soldiers. This dissertation focuses on assessing how combat-like environments influence an individual’s ability to effectively and efficiently reason, and further examines whether an individual’s grit and resilience affect deductive and inductive reasoning in stressful environments. Participants were recruited from a private US military academy. The study used a pretest-posttest mixed design to investigate possible cognitive decrements in individuals’ ability to reason following exposure to war-like environments simulated by immersive and non-immersive technologies. Dependent measures included both inductive and deductive reasoning (as measured by The Letter Sets Test and Overton’s (1990) version of the Wason Selection Task, respectively) by placing participants into the immersive or non-immersive conditions. Self-reported resilience and grit were tested for interaction effects to examine how an individual’s resilience and grit influences an individual’s ability to reason in war-like environments. These findings might give a richer understanding of the ways in which cognitive mechanisms are affected by stressful environments like combat.

Child survivors of the Holocaust have only recently been recognized as a distinguishable group of individuals who survived the war with a different experience to the older survivors. This thesis focuses on a specific group of child survivors, those who survived by going into hiding. In hiding, some remained "visible" by hiding within convents, orphanages or with Christian families. Others were physically hidden and had to disappear from sight. Most children often combined these two experiences in their hiding.
The intent of this study was to explore the experience of these hidden children using Giorgi’s empirical phenomenological methodology and to gain a richer understanding of the nature of this experience. Phenomenological analyses of the recorded and transcribed interviews of 11 child survivors were conducted and organized into meaning units which subsequently yielded situated structures from which the general structures evolved.
These analyses revealed that the defining moment of being hidden for these children was the suppression of their identities as Jews. By being hidden, they had to deny the essence of their core selves, including their names, family details and connections to others in an effort to conceal their Jewishness. Other structures to emerge as part of hiding were the pervading fear which enveloped their entire experience in hiding and the sense of suspended normality during this period, which sometimes extended over a period of years. A "cut-offness" and personality constriction seemed to be present throughout the descriptions of these children and appears to have developed as a method of coping with the trauma of their childhood. Overlaying all of this were general insecurities about the capriciousness of the war and the contextual specifics of their actual hiding places to which each child had to adjust. Connections/relationships to another person seemed to be highly significant in the dynamics of the everyday during the experience of hiding and often shaped some of the psychological and emotional experiences of hiddenness.

Bibliography: leaves 385-417.
x, 417 leaves : ill. (some col.), [1] col. map ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Documents and evaluates the experiences and life outcomes of a sample of WW2 veterans against a background of ideas about the neuroses of war, thereby examining the history of medical ideas about the psychological casualties of war, and the history of the lives of participants of war. The medical framework and social context that underpin the construction of war experience is critically examined in this thesis.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 385-417.
x, 417 leaves : ill. (some col.), [1] col. map ; 30 cm.
Documents and evaluates the experiences and life outcomes of a sample of WW2 veterans against a background of ideas about the neuroses of war, thereby examining the history of medical ideas about the psychological casualties of war, and the history of the lives of participants of war. The medical framework and social context that underpin the construction of war experience is critically examined in this thesis.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000

Rwanda experienced genocide from April to July 1994 during which over 800,000 people were murdered. Among the far-reaching changes that followed this event among individuals and in society overall, the Rwandan Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) showed that contraceptive prevalence declined from 13% in 1992 to 4% in 2000 among married women of reproductive age. This dissertation has two hypotheses concerning Rwandan women's fertility preferences and behavior following the genocide. It is hypothesized that, first, high levels of conflict reduced women's desire for a child or for additional children and second, that women who experienced relatively high levels of conflict were more likely to act on their wish to not have a child or another child by using modern contraceptives than were women who experienced relatively low levels of conflict. The study's logistic regression dependent (outcome) variables were desire for a or another child and the use of modern contraceptives; the source for these data was the 2000 DHS. Three groups of independent variables were included: socio-demographic variables, also from the 2000 DHS, included age, number of living children, education level, urban/rural residence and socio-economic status; availability of family planning services, assessed using women's perception of distance as a barrier to obtaining health care for themselves, from the 2000 DHS, and quality of health services, assessed with data from the 2001 Service Provision Assessment; and experience of conflict, measured as the percentage of the 1994 commune populations that resided in refugee camps in 1995. Communes were considered `high migration' if 10 percent or more of their populations migrated to camps and `low migration' if less than 10 percent of their populations migrated to camps. Women who lived in high migration communes were considered to have relatively high experience of conflict and those who lived in low migration communes were consider dot have relatively low experience of conflict. Analysis showed that residents of high migration communes were significantly less likely to want a or another child as compared to residents of low migration communes (OR = .74); it appeared that the social environment of high migration had a dampening effect on desire for children. The analysis also showed that residents of high migration communes were significantly less likely to use a modern contraceptive method than were those of low migration communes (OR = .57), even though they were less likely to want a or another child and even when family planning services were reasonably available. The reasons for these results are unclear, and many factors may contribute. The generalized trauma experienced by the population may have had a numbing effect, in which taking action in any domain was difficult. Women may have felt pressured by society to have children as the society emerged from war, despite their own preferences. The population may also have distrusted government health facilities - the only source of services for most - in light of the interactions with officials during and after the genocide. However, another set of reasons specific to women and women's health may also have influenced the findings. There is a pervasive social stigma around reproductive health; these services have generally lagged behind other primary health care components. Moreover, rape was used as a weapon of war in the genocide; these experiences may have reduced women's willingness to seek reproductive health services specifically. Finally, the Rwandan genocide and its preparation were decidedly misogynistic; this pervasive dehumanization may have made it particularly difficult for women to seek care for their sexual and reproductive health needs and desires. This complex personal, social, physical and political context may explain why Rwandan women who may not have wanted a child or additional children nonetheless did not consistently act on their desires in the years following the 1994 genocide. The dissertation includes a series of essays providing the author's personal perspective on working in Rwanda in the 1980s and 1990s and being present in the country at the start of the genocide in April 1994.

This dissertation undertakes a comparative study of certain works of literature concerning Vietnamese and American troops during the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. My assumption was that during war it is possible to conclude that enemy forces behave in the same manner in order to reach the identical goal, that of victory over the ‘other’ side. I sought to ascertain how under the selfsame conditions they could be considered as enemies. Divided only by the 17th Parallel: A Study of Similarities Between American and Vietnamese Soldiers in Selected Works By close reading of six texts, three from Vietnamese and three from American perspectives, I have attempted to extract their similar views from each in order to create a context in which the likeness of each side is demonstrated. This was achieved by exploring four themes: those of landscape, time, conflict and ghosts. It was discovered that the protagonists’ behaviour was the same and that rather than being the others’ adversary their true enemies were found within their own ranks. The results indicate that a wider perspective should be adopted on war than one which regards it as a simplistic binary consisting of two opposing sides. Contrary to any supposition that enemies must remain separated, there is more than enough evidence for one to conclude that they actually occupied mutual psychological territory. Key Terms: Landscape, time, ghosts, psychological damage, Reader Response, CSR, PTSD, New Historicism, dehumanisation, conditions of war, 1954 Geneva Agreement, ideology, war literature.
English Literature
M.A. (English Literature)

This is a prospective study of a cohort sample of injured Kuwaiti First Gulf War survivors designed to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity due to combat and exposures to traumatic events. The study included two main phases. The first phase conducted in 1998, and in 2003 the second phase was executed. This study was designed to investigate the contribution of combat physical injury to the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prevalence rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety and other psychological morbidity, and predictors of chronic PTSD. The first assessment was in 1998 and the second assessment in 2003 that involved biological investigations. Beside the clinical interview and the physical examination of the site of injury, multiple psychological scales and questionnaires were used. Based on DSM-IV criteria of PTSD, after the second assessment the population of this study were classified to: Chronic PTSD(have PTSD at both assessments), Delayed PTSD (have PTSD only on the second assessment), Recovered (have PTSD only in the first assessment), and Never PTSD (have no PTSD in both assessments). The biological assessment include: blood investigations, BMI, and visual analogue. The data of the study were analyzed based on the four PTSD subgroups. In the first chapter an introduction to the First Gulf War was presented followed by the second chapter that discussed literature review. The third chapter tackled the methods used in this study. The fourth to the sixth chapters discussed the results of this study regarding prevalence of Chronic PTSD, Cortisol and PTSD and Thyroid hormones and PTSD respectively. The last chapter presented the limitations and strengths of the study. There were three main hypotheses. First: combat injured survivors with chronic PTSD have cluster of symptoms severity similar to delayed PTSD after 13 years of the trauma and the prevalence of chronic PTSD is constant over time. Second: low cortisol levels observed in chronic PTSD are constant with chronicity, normalize with recovery, unrelated to degree of disability, and are influenced by comorbid disorders. Third: there is minor role for thyroid hormones in chronic PTSD. All of registered Kuwaiti combat injured survivors at the Social Development Office in Kuwait, were approached to voluntary participate in this study. Of 234 individuals 212 participate in the first stage, and out of these 123 participate in the second stage with the addition of 33 new cases that were not examined in 1998 but were registered in SDO after 1998. An informed consent was taken from the participants at both phases. The participants were assessed using General Health Questionnaire, Trauma Questionnaire, Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, and Life Event Scale. Questionnaires and scales applied in the first stage were applied in the second stage with the addition of Impact of Event Scale, Composite International Diagnostic Interview and Scale of Gulf War Syndrome. Biochemical assessment comprised cortisol level, thyroxine (fT4), free triiodothyronine (fT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). The blood samples were taken before starting the interview. Physical assessment involved measurements of: pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist-hip circumference, body mass index and visual analogue before and after the interview. Data entry program using Statistical Package for Social Scientists was used to enter data and analysis. The prevalence rate of delayed onset PTSD (14.6%), chronic PTSD (15.4) recovered from PTSD (22.8%) and never had PTSD (47.2%). With chronic PTSD there are higher cluster of PTSD symptoms severity, not related to severity of physical injury, has more prevalence of PTSD associated symptoms, higher comorbid psychiatric disorders. Intrusions, avoidance and arousal are PTSD cluster of symptoms more predictive of future development of PTSD after the injury. There was a low baseline cortisol level with chronic PTSD, and it was significantly lower in participants with delayed PTSD. Furthermore trauma itself rather than PTSD diagnosis may have an impact on cortisol level. Other psychiatric comorbidity has an enhancing effect on cortisol level. The levels of thyroid hormones were within the normal range. The trend of thyroid function in delayed and chronic PTSD is lower fT3, and TSH and higher fT4 levels, with higher fT3 levels in delayed PTSD compared to chronic PTSD. It was found that the higher severity of trauma score with PTSD the higher fT3 mean values.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2008

This is a prospective study of a cohort sample of injured Kuwaiti First Gulf War survivors designed to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity due to combat and exposures to traumatic events. The study included two main phases. The first phase conducted in 1998, and in 2003 the second phase was executed. This study was designed to investigate the contribution of combat physical injury to the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prevalence rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety and other psychological morbidity, and predictors of chronic PTSD. The first assessment was in 1998 and the second assessment in 2003 that involved biological investigations. Beside the clinical interview and the physical examination of the site of injury, multiple psychological scales and questionnaires were used. Based on DSM-IV criteria of PTSD, after the second assessment the population of this study were classified to: Chronic PTSD(have PTSD at both assessments), Delayed PTSD (have PTSD only on the second assessment), Recovered (have PTSD only in the first assessment), and Never PTSD (have no PTSD in both assessments). The biological assessment include: blood investigations, BMI, and visual analogue. The data of the study were analyzed based on the four PTSD subgroups. In the first chapter an introduction to the First Gulf War was presented followed by the second chapter that discussed literature review. The third chapter tackled the methods used in this study. The fourth to the sixth chapters discussed the results of this study regarding prevalence of Chronic PTSD, Cortisol and PTSD and Thyroid hormones and PTSD respectively. The last chapter presented the limitations and strengths of the study. There were three main hypotheses. First: combat injured survivors with chronic PTSD have cluster of symptoms severity similar to delayed PTSD after 13 years of the trauma and the prevalence of chronic PTSD is constant over time. Second: low cortisol levels observed in chronic PTSD are constant with chronicity, normalize with recovery, unrelated to degree of disability, and are influenced by comorbid disorders. Third: there is minor role for thyroid hormones in chronic PTSD. All of registered Kuwaiti combat injured survivors at the Social Development Office in Kuwait, were approached to voluntary participate in this study. Of 234 individuals 212 participate in the first stage, and out of these 123 participate in the second stage with the addition of 33 new cases that were not examined in 1998 but were registered in SDO after 1998. An informed consent was taken from the participants at both phases. The participants were assessed using General Health Questionnaire, Trauma Questionnaire, Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, and Life Event Scale. Questionnaires and scales applied in the first stage were applied in the second stage with the addition of Impact of Event Scale, Composite International Diagnostic Interview and Scale of Gulf War Syndrome. Biochemical assessment comprised cortisol level, thyroxine (fT4), free triiodothyronine (fT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). The blood samples were taken before starting the interview. Physical assessment involved measurements of: pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist-hip circumference, body mass index and visual analogue before and after the interview. Data entry program using Statistical Package for Social Scientists was used to enter data and analysis. The prevalence rate of delayed onset PTSD (14.6%), chronic PTSD (15.4) recovered from PTSD (22.8%) and never had PTSD (47.2%). With chronic PTSD there are higher cluster of PTSD symptoms severity, not related to severity of physical injury, has more prevalence of PTSD associated symptoms, higher comorbid psychiatric disorders. Intrusions, avoidance and arousal are PTSD cluster of symptoms more predictive of future development of PTSD after the injury. There was a low baseline cortisol level with chronic PTSD, and it was significantly lower in participants with delayed PTSD. Furthermore trauma itself rather than PTSD diagnosis may have an impact on cortisol level. Other psychiatric comorbidity has an enhancing effect on cortisol level. The levels of thyroid hormones were within the normal range. The trend of thyroid function in delayed and chronic PTSD is lower fT3, and TSH and higher fT4 levels, with higher fT3 levels in delayed PTSD compared to chronic PTSD. It was found that the higher severity of trauma score with PTSD the higher fT3 mean values.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2008

D.Litt et Phil.
For over a decade, from the late 1970's to October 1992, a war raged in Mozambique that resulted in what has been described as, one of the "most terrible genocides in the history of Africa". Over 4 million people were displaced during this war. Conservative estimates put the number of Mozambicans who sought refuge in South Africa at 250 000. This study examines the trauma created by the war, and its psycho-social outcomes, from the perspective of women refugees who came to settle in villages in the Nkomazi region of Mpumalanga province, in South Africa. Posttraumatic stress disorder, the concept which dominates research in the field of trauma studies, was based on research with male war veterans in western industrial societies. Recently a body of work has emerged which questions the validity of applying posttraumatic stress disorder to contexts of massive social conflict, and its utility in cross cultural contexts. This body of work suggests that an understanding of extreme trauma and its outcomes requires careful consideration of the social and cultural dimensions of trauma. The inclusion of a cultural formulation in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorder, DSM-IV, reinforces a growing acknowledgement amongst mental health researchers of the influence of culture on mental health and disorder. The gaps in research on African women survivors of war and the lack of standardised assessment tools, makes this an exploratory study which uses qualitative research methods. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 30 Mozambican women refugees to explore their experiences and definitions of trauma, the psycho-social outcomes of the trauma, and coping and survival in the aftermath of the war. The magnitude of the trauma evident in the research findings called for a conceptual definition which reflects multiple risks and the interdependence of social and individual trauma. Thematic analysis and qualitative coding of the interview data revealed clinically well defined posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and locally specific discourses of suffering framed by cultural beliefs, social practices and historical experiences. Their testimony and observations in the field, revealed that the survivors demonstrated a capacity to survive and reconstruct their lives. Their coping strategies and survival tactics were fundamentally shaped by socio-historical experiences and the limits and possibilities contained in the recovery environment. The results of this study suggest an approach to examining the complex relationship between trauma and its consequences, which abstracts neither trauma nor its victims from cultural and social-historical contexts.

Is there meaning in suffering or ts suffering only a soul-destroying experience from which nothing positive can emerge? In seeking to answer this question, a heuristic study was made of the experiences and views of the famous Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl, supplemented by an exploration of the life-worlds of other Nazi concentration camp survivors. The underlying premise was that if meaning can be found in the worst sufferings imaginable, then meaning can be found in every other situation of suffering. Seeking to illuminate the views of Frankl and to gain a deeper grasp of the phenomenon of suffering, the theoretical and personal views of mainstream psychologists regarding the nature of man and the meaning of hi.~ sufferings were studied. Since the focus of this research was on the suffering of the Holocaust survivor, the Holocaust as the context of the present study, was studied as a crisis of meaning and as psychological adversity. In trying to establish the best way to gain entry into the life-world of the Holocaust survivor, the research methods employed in Holocaust survivor studies were reviewed and, for the purposes of this study, found wanting. The choice and employment of a heuristic method yielded rich data which illuminated the fact that, through a series of heroic choices Frankl, and the survivors who became research participants, could attain spiritual triumph in the midst of suffering caused by an evil and inhumane regime. Hitherto unexplored areas of psychological maturity were revealed by these heroes of suffering from which the following conclusions could be drawn: Man attains the peaks of moral excellence through suffering. Suffering can have meaning. Suffering can call us out of the moral apathy and mindlesness of mere existence. The Holocaust, one of the most tragic events in human history, contains, paradoxically, a challenge to humankind. Resisting the pressure to sink to the level of a brute fight for mere survival, Frankl and the research participants continued to exercise those human values important to them and triumphantly maintained their human dignity and self-respect. Evidence was provided that man has the power to overcome evil with good.
Psychology
D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

These original data for this research were documented in the clinical diary records of an army psychiatrist on deployment in Vietnam during 1969–70. This study is unique due to the original battlefield diagnosis data used for foundation comparison analysis and longitudinal retrospective case control paired measurement. In battlefield psychiatric assessment diagnostic data recorded in Vietnam during 1969–70 of 119 Australian military servicemen (Experimental group) who presented battlefield trauma exposure reactions were examined. The research case controls (Control group) are 275 Australian Vietnam veterans selected from data at the Australian War Memorial Research Centre. Case control identified participants did not present with medical symptoms in 1969-70 and presented the same demographic profile as the Experimental group population. This research examined whether initial psychiatric illnesses initiated by battlefield trauma exposure in 1969-70 by a cohort of Vietnam veterans would have long term pernicious effects on their physical and psychological health, relationships and employment status. This research compared, PTSD, delayed onset PTSD, severity of combat exposure and depressive symptoms, quality of dyads, general health and quality of life. The analysis of specific demographic variables determined the means, standard deviations, and medians for those continuous variables for both groups from 1969-70 (n=394) and 2006-07 (n=97). The 2006-07 Experimental group (n=21) represents 17.65% and the Control group (n=76) represents 28.15% of the original groups selected and matched from 1969-70 data. These participants completed a battery of psychometric questionnaires and a follow up telephone interview. Demographic variables were evaluated for inclusion as covariates. These demographic variables were correlated with combat exposure and the presentation of PTSD in 1969-70 and 2006-07. PTSD identified in 2006-07 was modelled as a latent variable with three manifest indicators (re-experiencing, hyper-arousal and avoidance). Categorical variables were determined by frequency tables for respective group participants. Group differences in continuous variables were analysed by t-test or the Wilcoxon signed rank sum test accounting for non-normal distributions. Categorical variables, chi-square tests or Fisher's Exact Tests were performed when assumptions of chi-square tests were violated. Research participants from 1969-70 and 2006-07 did not indicate a significant difference in demographic, categorical or continuous variables. Initial 1969-70 battlefield psychiatric diagnosis TSD did indicate of a causal link to delayed onset PTSD in research participants in 2006-07. The PTSD (2006-07 diagnosis) indicated a descriptive difference, 64 of the 76 Control met the diagnostic criteria, while 19 of the 21 Experimental met the criteria. A significant difference was identified in the 2006-07 presence and severity of depression, two symptoms (intrusion and avoidance) of PTSD and the reported combat exposure. The prevalence of delayed onset PTSD was also highlighted. Obtaining original battlefield psychiatric diagnoses is rare. Comparison with an identifiable Control group after 35 years informs knowledge of how military personnel cope with battlefield exposure. Specifically concluding that; battlefield exposures during 1969-70 for the majority of the research participants have impacted detrimentally on their psychological and physical health, relationships, employment and ongoing overall wellbeing to this day. Delayed onset PTSD is the principal indicator of this current state for these veterans.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2008