Presentation to the CIMVHR Forum November 25, 2014 Toronto Michael J. Prince & Pamela Moss

 Presenter: Michael J. Prince  Relationship with commercial interests: Not Applicable  Disclosure of Commercial Support: No Commercial Support  Mitigating Potential Bias: Not Applicable 2

 How has transition to civilian life for veterans been portrayed in the literature?  Where and how do veterans with ill bodies and minds seek care, help and understanding?  How are families situated in transitions of weary warriors?  Data sources: ◦ Military memoirs and diaries, media reports, public documents, clinical literature, and historical and contemporary studies on traumatized warriors 3

1. A deinstitutionalization from highly structured military life to open civil society 2. A status passage of (i) separation from military identity, (ii) transition to new or former civil identity, and (iii) incorporation to that civil identity 3. Returning home as reunification and renormalization, with some adjustments 4

4. Coming to terms with symptoms, diagnoses and treatments associated with war neuroses, battle fatigue, and delayed stress: ◦ Disabling/disabled identities ◦ Psychiatric labels and interventions ◦ Stigma and shame ◦ Unpredictable status passages – crises and deterioration as well as adaptation that can take years ◦ Addiction issues and employment challenges 5

 The good warrior  The troubled hero  The outlaw  The misfit  The forgotten (abandoned) soldier  The disadvantaged outsider  The survivor Source: P. Moss and M.J. Prince, Weary Warriors: Power, Knowledge, and the Invisible Wounds of Soldiers, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2014, p

 Caring about others: during operations and afterwards  Caring for one self: dealing with demons and ghosts  Caring with others: informally at Legion halls, more actively in peer support groups, virtually on web sites and chat rooms, formally through CF/VAC social support programs 7

 Families a source of personality traits  Distraction to recovery while still in service  Support system and safe haven  Emotional battleground and place of stress and fear  As the site of mental health interventions for the trouble veteran  Families as consumers of psychiatric practice 8

 Symbolic recognition (or not) by the state  Legislative commitments  Provision of benefits and services  Regulation of access, statuses and outcomes  Contestation of claims  Competing narratives on helping veterans  Multiple effects: ◦ Categorization of veterans ◦ Medicalization of claims and individuals ◦ Pauperization of some veterans ◦ Politicization and activism of veterans 9

Official talk and culture for all Actual experiences for some  “Support our troops”  Loyal service  Personal sacrifice  A grateful country  Honouring veterans  National remembrance  Feeling abandoned  Questioned medical records  Invisibility of claims  Unfair or unequal treatment  Personal struggles 10

 Coming home: ◦ a re-cultivation of civilian self ◦ not always a de-militarization, can mean an intensification ◦ another form of combat or battle  Coming to terms: ◦ a type of citizenship politics ◦ struggle by group for recognition and rightful access to state resources ◦ public celebration or indifference, private acceptance or shame, renewed personal life or social death ◦ 11