The Social Construction of PTSD: The Case of the ‘Old Guard’ Policemen After South African Democracy

Often, we assume the traumatic nature of first response work has inevitable repercussions. This can lead to assumptions about trauma being the reason for distress, resulting in fixed ideas about diagnosis and treatment, without the complex socio-political and psychodynamic implications being fully considered. This paper challenges such assumptions by exploring the presentation of PTSD in ‘old guard’ police officers at the cusp of the post-apartheid era in South Africa. Focusing on long serving ‘white’ Afrikaner policemen, an argument is advanced that, while a diagnosis of PTSD may have enabled the old guard to legitimately access care and support for distress, at another level it served to displace core conflicts related to masculinity (and other aspects of identity) triggered by adjustment difficulties inherent in the transition from apartheid to post-apartheid South Africa. A case study is used to illustrate these observations.