Explanations of post-traumatic stress disorder in Falklands memoirs: the fragmented self and the collective body

The Falklands War has been described and experienced as disproportionately traumatic. The war was the first following the consolidation of the diagnostic for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as the measurement for the traumatic nature of combat. Whilst a variety of different disciplines and literatures have explored the traumatic nature of warfare, the experiences and accounts of Falklands veterans have been key to the popularization of the PTSD model, as well as to campaigns around the treatment and rehabilitation of ex-combatants. Ex-combatants' Falklands memoirs share a number of explanations of trauma with the wider literature. However, Falklands soldiers' memoirs also provide invaluable insight into both the specificity of their battlefield experience, and suggest wider universal lessons on trauma more generally. Although presented as individual accounts, central to Falklands memoirs is the importance of the military collective body in maintaining resilience to, and enabling recuperation from, the traumatic impact of combat.