New Article: Ginor & Remez,Veterans’ Memoirs as a Source for the USSR’s Intervention in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Aryeh

Ginor, Isabella, and Gideon Remez. “Veterans’ Memoirs as a Source for the USSR’s Intervention in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Fluctuations in Their Appearance and Character With Political Change in Post-Soviet Russia.” Journal of Slavic Military Studies 29.2 (2016): 279-97.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2016.1168136

Abstract

Shortly before and after the USSR’s demise, a new literature emerged: memoirs by veterans of the Soviet Union’s massive military intervention in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1960s and ’70s. Resurgent Russian pride, coupled with condemnation of its corruption by Soviet crimes, permitted startling disclosures. Tools we developed to evaluate these sources found them remarkably reliable and necessitated a reassessment of existing historiography. The Putin administration marked a reversal. Russian nationalism now stressed continuity with the USSR’s great-power status. ‘Falsification of history against Russian interests’ was criminalized. Some veterans resorted to purported ‘fiction’, which if challenged could be disclaimed. But under even stricter scrutiny, these narratives generally proved to reflect the authors’ actual experience, providing significant pointers for further research.

New Article: Araten-Bergman et al, Psychosocial Adjustment of Israeli Veterans with Disabilities

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Aryeh

Araten-Bergman, Tal, Patricia Tal-Katz, and Michael Ashley Stein. “Psychosocial Adjustment of Israeli Veterans with Disabilities: Does Employment Status Matter?” Work 50.1 (2015): 59-71.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-141925

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Since its establishment in 1948, the state of Israel has been deeply committed to reintegrating veterans with disabilities into mainstream society. Prominently, the Israeli Ministry of Defence’s rehabilitation division provides veterans with disabilities with a wide array of benefits and services aimed at restoring their physical and psychosocial functioning, especially in the workplace. The focus on employment is motivated by a prevailing assumption among professionals that successful adjustment to disability is contingent on an individual’s ability to reacquire normative occupational function. To date, however, this widely accepted wisdom has not been empirically scrutinized.

OBJECTIVE: To empirically explore whether employment status is associated to psychological, social, and behavioural adjustment attributes.

METHODS: One hundred and one employed veterans were compared to 111 non-employed veterans in respect to their self-reported levels of hope, acceptance of disability, social networks size and social participation patterns.

RESULTS: Employed veterans reported significantly higher levels psychological adjustment as manifested in elevated hope and acceptance of disability and lighter social network than their non-employed counterparts. However no differences were found between employed and non-employed veterans with respect to their social participation patterns.

CONCLUSIONS: The value of these findings, as well as wider implications for rehabilitation professionals and policy makers, is discussed.

New Article: Cohen, Implicit Dehumanization and Anti-Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Aryeh

Cohen, Shuki J. “Breakable and Unbreakable Silences: Implicit Dehumanization and Anti-Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives Concerning Palestinian Women.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.3 (2015): 245-77.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aps.1461

Abstract

This paper illustrates an empirical paradigm for a minimally-biased characterization of the internal representations of female enemy members by male soldiers in the context of a military occupation. Using a combination of psycholinguistic and psychoanalytic tools, the study examined the associative structure of the language that was used by Israeli ex-soldiers in a large corpus of verbatim testimonies detailing their service in the Palestinian occupied territories. Since explicit dehumanization is rare in Israeli official discourse and in media- and political correctness-savvy occupying forces worldwide, this study examined implicit dehumanization through the non-conscious use of spontaneous linguistic choices. Using both computerized and quantitative linguistic analyses, this study tracked a particular pattern or word choice, presumed to capture implicit dehumanization based on a trans-disciplinary definition of the construct. Furthermore, to mitigate the potential confound between fear of the enemy and its dehumanization, this study focused on anecdotes concerning Palestinian women, as they pose less realistic threat to Israeli soldiers. Consistent with this study’s formulation of implicit dehumanization, Israeli soldiers tended to describe Palestinian women’s mental state in situational and behavioral terms (e.g. scream, make a mess, piss her pants, had a heart attack, etc.). In contrast, empathic inference – whereby the narrator extends their emotional understanding of themselves and other humans to the person whose emotional state they attempt to describe or understand – was often reserved in the testimonials only to the narrator and his fellow comrades. This evidence for implicit dehumanization is then discussed as a borderline-level defense mechanism within the larger context of both individual- and national-level anti-Arab prejudice in Israel.

New Article: Koren et al, Disability during Military Service in Israel

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Aryeh

Koren, Ela, Yoav S. Bergman, and Michael Katz. “Disability during Military Service in Israel: Raising Awareness of Gender Differences.” Journal of Gender Studies 24.1 (2015): 117-28.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2013.820132

Abstract

Women in Israel are required by law to serve in the national army. While disabled women veterans constitute about 6% of the total disabled veteran population, their injuries during service are similar to those of men, and include injuries sustained during combat, in training, or in traffic accidents. To date, no attempt has been made to study this unique population. The current research employs the social model of disability and examines gender differences among Israeli Defense Forces veterans who became disabled during their military service, in the areas of mental and physical health, perceived stigma, and social support. Findings show that disabled women veterans report significantly lower social support, lower monthly salaries, and experience more discrimination than their male counterparts. No differences were found in other variables. This research is an important step toward raising the awareness of gender differences, and its findings stress the need for additional studies which will provide further information regarding this distinctive population.

New Article: Stein and Tuval-Mashiach, Loneliness of Israeli Veterans of Combat and Captivity

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Aryeh

Stein, Jacob Y., and Rivka Tuval-Mashiach. “Loneliness and Isolation in Life-Stories of Israeli Veterans of Combat and Captivity.” Psychological Trauma 7.2 (2015): 122-30.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036936

Abstract

Loneliness holds detrimental ramifications for health and well-being. Nevertheless, loneliness references in the literature addressing combat-related trauma are few. Consequentially, the qualities and characteristics of such experiences in these posttraumatic realities remain uninvestigated empirically. In the current qualitative study we began filling this gap in the literature. We utilized thematic content analysis of life-stories of 19 combat veterans and 7 ex-POWs that have given testimony at the Israel Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War (NATAL). Our findings suggest that the loneliness in the contexts at hand is primarily characterized by a sense of experiential isolation, rather than social, emotional, or existential. This is the sensation that due to the extraordinary nature of traumatic experiences the fulfillment of needs such as empathy and intersubjectivity may be unattainable. Integrating our findings with existing interdisciplinary literature regarding social sharing, trauma, and loneliness, we discuss implications for clinical interventions and further research.

New Book: Safir et al., Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Aryeh

Safir, Marilyn P., Helene S. Wallach, and Albert Rizzo, eds. Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment. New York: Springer, 2015.

Ours is an era of increasing tension, both global and local. And not surprisingly, PTSD is recognized not only in combat veterans and active military personnel, but also disaster and assault survivors across the demographic spectrum. As current events from mass shootings to the debate over trigger warnings keep the issue in the public eye, the disorder remains a steady concern among researchers and practitioners.

Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder presents findings and ideas with the potential to influence both our conceptualization of the condition and the techniques used to address it. A multidisciplinary panel of experts offers new analyses of risk and resilience factors, individual and group approaches to prevention, the evolving process of diagnosis, and effective treatment and delivery. Chapters on treatment allow readers to compare widely-used prolonged exposure and VR methods with innovative applications of cognitive processing therapy and interpersonal therapy. And an especially compelling contribution surveys empirically-based programs relating to what for many is the emblematic trauma of our time, the events of September 11, 2001. Included in the coverage:

Predictors of vulnerability to PTSD: neurobiological and genetic risk factors.
Early intervention: is prevention better than cure?
The functional neuroanatomy of PTSD.
The development of evidence-based treatment for PTSD.
Enhancing exposure therapy using D-Cycloserine (DCS).
PLUS: a case example as seen through five therapeutic perspectives.

While millions experience trauma, relatively few develop chronic PTSD. Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a practical and proactive reference for the health and clinical psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians dedicated to further decreasing those numbers.

Table of contents

Vulnerability to PTSD: Psychosocial and Demographic Risk and Resilience Factors

Bar-Shai, Marina (et al.)

Pages 3-30
Neurobiological Risk Factors and Predictors of Vulnerability and Resilience to PTSD

Bar-Shai, Marina (et al.)

Pages 31-63
The Early Adolescent or “Juvenile Stress” Translational Animal Model of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Richter-Levin, Gal (et al.)

Pages 65-77
An Attachment Perspective on Traumatic and Posttraumatic Reactions

Mikulincer, Mario (et al.)

Pages 79-96
Delayed-Onset PTSD in Israeli Combat Veterans: Correlates, Clinical Picture, and Controversy

Horesh, Danny (et al.)

Cutting Edge Research on Prevention of PTSD

Kearns, Megan C. (et al.)

Pages 133-153
Systems of Care for Traumatized Children: The Example of a School-Based Intervention Model

Brom, Danny (et al.)

Pages 155-169
Is Prevention Better than Cure? How Early Interventions Can Prevent PTSD

Freedman, Sara A. (et al.)

Pages 171-186
Evolution of PTSD Diagnosis in the

Echterling, Lennis G. (et al.)

Pages 189-212
Functional Neuroanatomy of PTSD: Developmental Cytoarchitectonic Trends, Memory Systems, and Control Processes

Gilboa, Asaf

Pages 213-241
Prolonged Exposure Treatment

Nacasch, Nitsa (et al.)

Pages 245-251
Cognitive Processing Therapy: Beyond the Basics

Chard, Kathleen M. (et al.)

Pages 253-262
Interpersonal Psychotherapy for PTSD

Rafaeli, Alexandra Klein (et al.)

Pages 263-272
Inclusion of Virtual Reality: A Rationale for the Use of VR in the Treatment of PTSD

García-Palacios, Azucena (et al.)

Pages 275-287
Initial Development and Dissemination of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD

Reger, Greg M. (et al.)

Pages 289-302
Update and Expansion of the Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan PTSD Exposure Therapy System

Rizzo, Albert (et al.)

Pages 303-328
Mental Health Problems and Treatment Utilization of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Enrolled in Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care

Seal, Karen H. (et al.)

Pages 329-345
Enhancing Exposure Therapy for PTSD Using

Burton, Mark S. (et al.)

Pages 347-365
Implementation of Evidence-Based Assessment, Treatment, and Research Programs Following the World Trade Center Disaster on September 11, 2001

Olden, Megan (et al.)

Pages 367-387
Case Presentation of a Chronic Combat PTSD Veteran

Nacasch, Nitsa (et al.)

Pages 391-409
Matching Treatment to Patients Suffering from PTSD: What We Know and Especially What We Don’t Know

Wallach, Helene S.

Pages 411-415
Erratum to: Case Presentation of a Chronic Combat PTSD Veteran

Reception & Exhibit: Nussbaum, Draft and Release

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Aryeh

A Senior Thesis Exhibition by Talia Nussbaum

Draft and Release:

Navigating the Israeli Army and Life Beyond

Opening Reception
Tuesday, April 20th
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Exhibition runs:
April 21 – 30, 2010
Daily:
10 AM – 4:30 PM
Lucas Gallery
Lewis Center for the Arts
at 185 Nassau Street
Princeton University
Free and open to the public

URL: http://www.princeton.edu/arts/arts_at_princeton/visual_arts/about_the_program/exhibitions/draft-and-release/overview/

Cite: Naor, 1948 War Veterans

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Aryeh

Naor, Moshe. "The 1948 War Veterans and Postwar Reconstruction in Israel ." Journal of Israeli History 29,1 (2010): 45-59.

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Abstract

This article deals with the characteristics of postwar reconstruction in the State of Israel at the end of the 1948 war and during the early 1950s, focusing on the patterns and priorities of reconstruction of society as a whole and the rehabilitation of veteran soldiers in particular. The article addresses the social impact of the rehabilitation of the 1948 war veterans on the emerging Israeli society, including the creation of a social distinction between different sectors undergoing rehabilitation in terms of employment and housing. The article also discusses the social and political protests that accompanied the rehabilitation of the demobilized soldiers who campaigned for recognition and commemoration.

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URL: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a919915943

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Keywords: Military, 1948 War, Israel: Society, Memory, Israel: Health system, Disability / Disabled / Accessibility, Veterans, Shell Shock / CSR, משה נאור

ToC: Journal of Israeli History 29,1 (2010)

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Aryeh

The Journal of Israeli History has its first issue out for 2010. Below is the full Table of Contents, with links to abstracts and (limited) online access. As always, I will try (nut do not commit) to post the articles as separate entries, too.

Articles

A century of childhood, parenting, and family life in the kibbutz
Amia Lieblich
Pages 1 – 24
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