Perception of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Ukraine: a Dispositive Analysis of a News Website Censor.net ; Сприйняття посттравматичного стресового розладу в Україні: аналіз диспозитивів сайту новин «Цензор.нет»

Abstract

The war in Eastern Ukraine has been happening for more than five years. Many veterans of this conflict are suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Despite the existence of effective PTSD treatment, they do not seek help. The main reason for not seeking help is stigma. The most common view is that the main reason for stigma is the military culture. The military culture is recognized as a discourse in this article. One of the important ways of studying discourses is media analysis. The method of dispositive analysis by Siegfried Jäger and Florentine Maier, which is a type of critical discourse analysis, was used to examine discourses about PTSD among veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and Joint Forces Operation (JFO) on the news website Censor.net. A thematic analysis of 46 articles from this website, which contain at least one mention of the word 'PTSD', was conducted. This examination was enhanced by a rhetoric review of the articles which were typical for the most frequent themes emerged in the data. The results suggest that there are at least three ways of understanding PTSD in Ukrainian society. PTSD as a way of understanding and explaining all the war and postwar experience among veterans; PTSD as a way how volunteers and other people who help veterans treat veterans; and as a complex phenomenon as it is understood by foreign and Ukrainian mental health professionals. All these attempts to understand the essence of PTSD may define how it will be treated in Ukrainian society. For veterans, PTSD is a state of mind and a way how they feel about the political situation in Ukraine. With such a mindset, they will unlikely seek help. For volunteers, it is a condition of all veterans who return from war. From this point of view, all veterans must pass rehabilitation. For mental health professionals, PTSD is a unique war experience, and this view also differs from the way how veterans feel about and experience PTSD. Manuscript received 29.02.2020 ; Незважаючи на існування ефективних методів лікування посттравматичного стресового розладу (ПТСР), багато ветеранів АТО та ООС не звертаються по допомогу через стигму ПТСР, наявну в українському суспільстві. Метод критичного дискурс-аналізу було застосовано для з'ясування того, які дискурси про ПТСР наявні в українських медіа. Було виявлено, що дискурси, поширені серед різних учасників надання допомоги ветеранам, по-різному визначають те, чим прийнято вважати ПТСР у ветеранів АТО та ООС в Україні. Матеріал надійшов 29.02.2020