Croatian war veterans in print media in 1996 and in 2006.
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INTRODUCTION: The media have an important role in maintaining and creating social relations and social environment. This especially refers to the war and post-war period in which the media can form a part of the prevention context, i.e., the media can facilitate the process of recovery from war trauma, but they can also contribute to stigmatization and retraumatization. Our aim was to analyze Croatian newspaper reports about Croatian war veterans and to determine the differences in ways of dealing with the subject during 1996 and 2006. METHODS: The data were gathered by reviewing two daily papers, Novi list and Ve?ernji list and Globus weekly. The analysis included newspaper reports related to the subject of Croatian war veterans, published in the first six months of 1996 and 2006. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze both the form and the content of the reports. RESULTS: A total of 538 newspaper reports were published in the above-stated periods. In the first half of 2006 the number of reports related to the subject of Croatian war veterans dropped 6.5 percent compared to the first half of 1996. Topics prevalent at the end of the war were different from those ten years later. The 1996 articles mostly reported on activities organized by various associations, medal-awarding ceremonies, military operations etc. Ten years later the topics focused on war crimes, trials of Croatian war generals and dissatisfaction with veterans' rights and legislation. Moreover, articles relating to crime and reports about suicides and attempts of suicide increased significantly in 2006. CONCLUSION: During the ten-year period, the media image of Croatian war veterans significantly changed, which was expected owing to different social circumstances immediately after the war and ten years later. The prevalence of topics negative in tone and a lack of proactive stories reflect, but also create, a social context which can affect the process of recovery from traumatization. (+info)
Posttraumatic stress disorder in former 'comfort women'.
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OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the mental health of former 'comfort women' who serviced the Japanese Imperial Military during the Second World War. METHOD: We evaluated 26 former comfort women's life histories, cognitive functioning, DSM-IV diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, paranoid state, anger, and Rorschach test results, and compared the data with those of 24 healthy women. RESULTS: Cognitive functioning was not significantly different between former comfort women and the comparison group. All 26 former comfort women had undergone traumatic experiences such as sexual slavery and had suffered PTSD symptoms at least once in their lives. Of the 26, 8 (30.8%) were diagnosed as having PTSD, as opposed to none in the comparison group. The women's PTSD symptoms were characterized by avoidance behavior, intrusive and distressing recollections, and anger. There were no significant differences in depression or paranoid state between the two groups, but former comfort women had impairments in anger control. Former comfort women with PTSD were more depressed. On the Rorschach test, former comfort women revealed characteristic responses related not only to sex and morbidity but also to anger and violence. LIMITATIONS: The small number of subjects might not represent all former comfort women. Some data collected by self report might limit the objectivity of the results. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that former comfort women are still suffering from traumatic memories, symptoms of PTSD, including avoidant behavior, and anger control impairment, even 60 years after the end of the war. (+info)
Sexual violence in post-conflict Liberia: survivors and their care.
(20/29)
An exploration of how film portrays psychopathology: the animated documentary film Waltz with Bashir, the depiction of PTSD and cultural perceptions.
(21/29)
With the inauguration of the UK's first ever Medical Film festival MedFest in 2011 there has been resurgence in the interest of the association between psychiatry and film. The festival in 2012 was titled "HealthScreen": Understanding Illness through Film and its aim, according to the founder Dr Kamran Ahmed, was, 'To stimulate debate of the social, political and ethical implications of portrayals of health and illness on our screens' (1). Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It portrays the protagonist (Folman) in search of his lost memories of his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War and his attempt to both decipher them and reconcile himself with them. 2012 marks the 30th year commemoration of the Sabra and Shatilla tragedies. Waltz with Bashir vividly depicts the massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Beirut through the lens of an ex-IDF serviceman and the harrowing effects that PTSD has on him. Waltz with Bashir was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film however despite the popularity of the film and much critical acclaim it is officially banned in Lebanon. The authors are mindful of the devastating effects that the atrocities have had on the mental health of all those who were involved, the Lebanese, Palestinians and also the Israelis. The purpose of this presentation is to explore how the film Waltz with Bashir portrays PTSD and how it has influenced cultural perceptions. (+info)
Clauberg's eponym and crimes against humanity.
(22/29)
Scientific journals are ethically bound to cite Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg's Nazi medical crimes against humanity whenever the eponym Clauberg is used. Modern articles still publish the eponym citing only the rabbit bioassy used in developing progesterone agonists or antagonists for birth control. Clauberg's Nazi career is traced to his having subjected thousands of Jewish women at the Ravensbruck and Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps to cruel, murderous sterilization experiments that are enthusiastically described by incriminating letters (reproduced here) between him and the notorious Nazi Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The experiments were carried out in women's block 10 in Auschwitz-Birkenau where Clauberg's colleague Dr. Josef Mengele worked alongside. After Germany lost World War II in 1945 Mengele fled to South America, where he lived to an old age. Clauberg was caught by Russian soldiers, put on trial in the Soviet Union for his crimes against humanity, and imprisoned in 1948. In 1955 he was repatriated to Germany, once again imprisoned for his crimes, and belatedly expelled from the German Medical Association. To estimate the contemporary usage of the names Mengele and Clauberg, Internet hits were recorded for Clauberg C or Mengele J (with and without adding the term Auschwitz) with the Google and Scirus search engines. The ratios of hits for combinations of these terms reveal that relative to Mengele, Clauberg's name is barely known. We propose that journals and books printing the eponym Clauberg cite its derivation and reference to the convicted Nazi criminal. The present article can serve for such citations. (+info)
Controlled trial of psychotherapy for Congolese survivors of sexual violence.
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