| Abstrakt: |
As World War II (WWII) veterans reach the final years of their life, they are faced with their last opportunity to reconcile with past traumas and share their life story. This qualitative study on the language of the oldest old explored the war-time experiences of seventy veterans. Veterans who either fought in the European or Pacific theaters provided testimonial language at the time of life review. Thirty veterans expressed themes of traumatic narratives such as harm-to-self, harm-to-others, narrow escape, and prisoner of war (POW). Veterans occasionally utilized avoidance strategies, such as emotional pauses, crowding, generalizing, and direct resistance, when relating testimonies of traumatic memories. Reconciliation was predominantly demonstrated in their voluntary participation in the study, the high level of coherence of their war time experiences, and their generativity. Overall coherence resulted from their strong veteran identity, as well as their stage of life review and wanting to produce the best final statement. Wisdom, reflected in tolerance, empathy, and critical scrutiny of the war were highlighted in their testimonies. Reconciliation via generativity was prompted by the veterans wanting to give back to society, sharing their war-time stories to contribute to society's collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
