Research Paper Title

Soldiers Can Take It – A Conceptual Analysis of Trauma.

Purpose

This article will analyse the concept of trauma and illustrate distinctions between accepted definitions and actual meaning. For populations at high risk for exposure to traumatic situations, such as Special Operations Forces (SOF) and deployed military personnel, delineating the beliefs and environment-specific comprehension of trauma and its consequences is imperative.

Background

Trauma is a common term in health sciences literature and in the social vernacular, but is often misunderstood and lacks specificity. Differences in perception of what trauma is and is not may exist even between civilian and military populations. Therefore, the concept of trauma warrants clarification, to define the terminology and to use it appropriately with full understanding.

Introduction

Misunderstood concepts produce bad science, and even worse care delivery.  For those who provide and study trauma care, the concept of trauma should be universally understood. Superficially, the term “trauma” appears to be a well-defined and universally understood concept. There is even trauma on television. However, within theaters of combat, the perception and definition of trauma may be different. The earliest mention of trauma and traumatic experiences in the literature suggest that this concept may have been borne of soldiers and their experiences in war. Yet we have managed to marginalise the concept of trauma, because with war comes violence, and with violence comes death and injury.

 Source: Froede, K. (2012) Soldiers Can Take It – A Conceptual Analysis of Trauma. Journal of Special Operations Medicine. 11(1), pp.18-22.