[SydPhil] HPS Research Seminar, Monday 4 May 2026 at 5.30pm

[HPS Admin]

School of History and Philosophy of Science
RESEARCH SEMINAR
[The University of Sydney]
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PTSD in Australia from DSM-III to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide (2021-2024)
Effie Karageorges (The University of Newcastle)

Dates: Monday, 4/05/2026
Start Time: 5:30pm
Venue: Carslaw Building (F07), Level2, Lecture Theatre 275
How to register: Free, no registration required
Website: https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/qK6_C2xMQziRAv7BQtLHPT5vpjZ?domain=t.e2ma.net>

Abstract: In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), which introduced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new psychiatric category applicable to both civilian and veteran trauma. PTSD differed from previous DSM classifications such as ‘gross stress reaction’ in DSM-I of 1952 and ‘transient situational disturbance’ in 1968’s DSM-II by its insistence that such trauma was not related to personality, but rather ‘normal’ responses to a stressful event. Although this definition harked back to Freudian conceptualisations of ‘psychic trauma’, it was bound by a set of guidelines in line with the neo-Kraepelinian approach of DSM-III. For the military veteran, this new definition was revolutionary, removing – officially, at least – the suggestion common during the First and Second World Wars that traumatic symptoms were caused by faults in individual or hereditary makeup. In Australia, the Department of Veterans Affairs began recognising PTSD as a pensionable condition from the early 1980s, but it was not until the 1990s that Australian veterans mounted a collective approach to advocating for the recognition and pensioning of veteran trauma, predominantly through the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (VVAA).  Since this period, advocacy by the VVAA and other organisations has promoted the biomedical model of veteran trauma in alignment with the DSM, ensuring that veterans retain their respectability as ex-soldiers, while insisting on life-centred treatment options reflecting a biopsychosocial model. This paper focuses on the Australian example, where the foregrounding of military histories within national identity has led to a specific framing of the masculine soldier ‘hero’ that allows little room for men ‘weakened’ by trauma. Despite tireless advocacy by veteran organisations from the 1980s, the recent Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide tells us that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) remains attached to this framing and is yet to embrace the necessarily multifaced approach to ensure quality of life for traumatised military personnel.


Bio: Effie Karageorgos is a historian whose work focuses on conflict, violence, protest, gender and psychiatry. She is Deputy Co-Director of the UON Centre for Society, Health and Care Research, co-editor of Health and History journal and co-investigator on the ARC project ‘Life outside institutions: histories of mental health aftercare 1900 – 1960’ led by Catharine Coleborne. With Natalie Hendry (University of Melbourne), she coordinates the Social Production of Mental Health seminar series, which has formed the basis of their recent edited book Critical Mental Health in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Social and Historical Perspectives (Palgrave, 2025). Her latest book Quiet Protest: A New History of Activism in the Vietnam War is published by UNSW Press in April 2026.

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