“Heroes' invisible wounds of war:” constructions of posttraumatic stress disorder in the text of US federal legislation

Jonathan Purtle

Social Science & Medicine, 2016, vol. 149, issue C, 9-16

Abstract: Public policies contribute to the social construction of mental health problems. In this study, I use social constructivist theories of policy design and the methodology of ethnographic content analysis to qualitatively explore how posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been constructed as a problem in US federal legislation. I analyzed the text of 166 bills introduced between 1989 and 2009 and found that PTSD has been constructed as a problem unique to combat exposures and military populations. These constructions were produced through combat-related language and imagery (e.g., wounds, war, heroism), narratives describing PTSD as a military-specific phenomenon, and reinforced by the absence of PTSD in trauma-focused legislation targeting civilians. These constructions do not reflect the epidemiology of PTSD—the vast majority of people who develop the disorder have not experienced combat and many non-combat traumas (e.g., sexual assault) carry higher PTSD risk—and might constrain public and political discourse about the disorder and reify sociocultural barriers to the access of mental health services.

Keywords: United States; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Policy design theory; Qualitative document analysis; Public policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:149:y:2016:i:c:p:9-16

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.039

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