Sex as medicine?: How Danish war veterans cope with trauma through intimate encounters
2021 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
The existing research on war veterans and sexuality comes overwhelmingly from four disciplines – medicine, psychiatry, psychology, and public health – and is in most cases carried out in military related contexts. This research, though limited in its scope, nevertheless shows the impact that the military institution, deployments to war, and physical and mental injuries from these deployments have on the intimate lives of current and former military personnel. Being diagnosed with PTSD for example increases the likelihood of sexual dysfunction, relationship conflicts, and emotional distance to intimate others. What is more, female military personnel and LGTBQI soldiers are likely to suffer more severely from PTSD, anxiety, and depression due to sexual harassment and homo- and transphobia as part of military service. Yet, what it actually means to live intimacy in light of these chronic conditions and how intimacy is shaped as well as shapes the life of veterans and soldiers impacted by chronic conditions due to their military service is still mostly unknown. This presentation attempts to shed light on militarized intimacies by exploring how Danish war veterans live their sexual lives in light of chronic conditions resulting from their military service. Based on interviews with Danish war veterans and participant observation at a home for veterans as well as relationship courses for current and former military personnel in Denmark, this presentation thus attends to the meaning of sex for coping with chronic conditions as well as the meaning of chronic conditions for the experience of sexual encounters.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen , 2021.
Keywords [en]
sexuality, gender, masculinity, femininity, feminism, intimacy, medicalization, diagnosis, war, trauma
National Category
Gender Studies
Research subject
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-83617OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-83617DiVA, id: diva2:1543165
Conference
Chronic Living: Quality, vitality and health in the 21st century. 4th - 6th of March 2021, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2021-04-092021-04-092021-06-17Bibliographically approved