The Social Trauma of War VETERANS1

This paper deals with the attitude of the society towards war veterans in Serbia, from their perspective. It presents the research results of the social position of war veterans in Serbia from the theoretical framework of the so-called social constructivism. This theoretical approach advocates the standpoint that the problem of war veterans does not socially exist until it is constructed as a social problem, i.e. until it reaches the appropriate symbolic interpretation. Therefore, the interpretation and representation of participating in war, viewed as socially symbolic acts, are important aspects of understanding the social trauma of those who return from war and carry with them clinical and therapeutic aspects of trauma. 30 war veterans who partook in the wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia participated in the study. The method of semistructured interviews was used in the research. The objective of the study was to determine their attitudes and experiences about their own p...