Main description:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, has long been defined as a mental trauma that solely affects the individual. However, against the backdrop of contemporary Israel, what role do families, health experts, donors, and the national community at large play in interpreting and responding to this individualized trauma? In PTSD and the Politics of Trauma in Israel, Keren Friedman-Peleg sheds light on a new way of speaking about mental vulnerability and national belonging in contemporary Israel. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at The Israel Center for Victims of Terror and War and The Israel Trauma Coalition between 2004 and 2009, Friedman-Peleg's rich ethnographic study challenges the traditional and limited definitions of trauma. In doing so, she exposes how these clinical definitions have been transformed into new categories of identity, thereby raising new dynamics of power, as well as new forms of dialogue.

Contents:

Introduction Chapter One Birth of Agencies, Birth of an Interpretative Framework Chapter Two Trauma and Capital: Bearers of Knowledge, Keepers of Cashboxes Chapter Three Trauma and the Camera: Labeling Stress, Marketing the Fear Chapter Four They Shoot, Cry and Are Treated: The "Clinical Nucleus" of Trauma among IDF Soldiers Chapter Five Woman, Man and Disorder: Trauma in the Intimate Sphere of the Family Chapter Six Wandering PTSD: Ethnic Diversity and At-Risk Groups across the Country Chapter Seven Taking Hold: Resilience Program in the Southern Town of Sderot Chapter Eight Treading Cautiously around Sensitive Clinical and Political Domains References