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.

中文翻译：

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PTSD的社会建构：南非民主之后的“老警卫”警察案。

通常，我们认为急救工作的创伤性不可避免。这可能导致关于创伤是困扰的原因的假设，导致关于诊断和治疗的固定观念，而没有充分考虑复杂的社会政治和心理动力学影响。本文通过探讨在种族隔离后时代的南非风潮中PTSD在“老警卫”警察中的表现来挑战这些假设。针对长期服务的“白人”南非荷兰人警察，有人提出了这样的观点：尽管对PTSD的诊断可能使老警卫能够合法地获得护理和对遇难者的支持，在另一个层面上，它取代了男性气质（以及身份认同的其他方面）引起的核心冲突，这些冲突是由种族隔离向种族隔离后的南非过渡所固有的调整困难引发的。案例研究用于说明这些观察结果。