ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and argues that it is an involuntary commemoration of war. Because of the memories they bring home, those who go through wars can, and often do, become involuntary walking memorials to that experience. It analyzes the tensions between the privatized experience of PTSD and public remembrance of war. The chapter summarizes the nature and treatment of PTSD memories. Second, it discusses the responses of PTSD sufferers to the representation of war in film and official commemorations, and their efforts to fashion alternative forms of public remembrance. It explores the situation of the carers who privately handle the involuntary commemorations of public wars in which they were not directly involved. The websites indicate the extent to which ‘traumatic memory’ is a familiar, even domestic, term. Professional carers notice memory-related aspects of PTSD that would benefit from public research; for example, the way memories of trauma are screened, encoded and then articulated.
