Defense and Security Studies Commons^™

Using a mixed-method approach, this study examined the prevalence of post-deployment disorientation (PDD) in military memoirs. Post-deployment disorientation (Weibull 2012) is operationalized in this study as the writer describing either a feeling of prolonged alienation or one or more of the three post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing and/or increased arousal) after returning from his or her deployment. Content analysis to detect the occurrence of PDD was performed on all 54 military Afghanistan memoirs that were published between 2001 and 2010 in English, German or Dutch in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, …

Volgens het Trouw Schrijfonderzoek 2007 hebben meer dan een miljoen Nederlanders schrijven als hobby. Als er één activiteit is die mensen in een flow krijgt, is het wel schrijven. Ook militairen schrijven en publiceren over hun ervaringen op uitzending. Luitenant-kolonel Esmeralda Kleinreesink heeft een proefschrift geschreven over deze schrijvende militairen. Ze heeft alle militaire Afghanistan autobiografieën die tussen 2001 en 2010 zijn uitgegeven in Nederland, Duitsland, Engeland, de VS en Canada onderzocht. Tijdens deze lezing neemt Esmeralda Kleinreesink je in Mensale sneltreinvaart mee door haar onderzoek. Ze beantwoordt vier vragen: Wie zijn die schrijvende militairen? Wie publiceert ze? Waarover schrijven …

Layman's Talk from promotion ceremony PhD thesis 'On Military Memoirs' by lt-col Esmeralda Kleinreesink (in Dutch). The presentation itself can be viewed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHCkrgaVg_A

Sometimes it can be fairly difficult for outsiders to gain access to the military field. However, there is a rich source on the military that is readily available for every researcher: military memoirs. This source does provide some methodological challenges, nevertheless. One might wonder about the reliability (‘truth’) of these autobiographies and whether their content is affected by the fact that these books are prone to official censorship by the military in order to preserve operational security. This study shows that truth and (self) censorship are not only a concern for researchers, but also for military writers themselves and it …

Egodocuments are texts in which an author writes about his or her own acts, thoughts and feelings, such as diaries, blogs, and memoirs. This chapter looks at how egodocuments can be (and are) used by military researchers. It concludes that it offers great research opportunities for any researcher despite scientific discipline or methodological background. All sorts of elements can be researched from paratext, theme and plot, to the psychology behind word usage, and both qualitative and quantitative methods can be used. Careful scoping and time and patience to collect the documents involved are essential ingredients for the successful military egodocument …