title: Will the war for the Croatian Homeland War veterans ever end?
abstract: The aim of this paper is to show the psychological consequences of participation in the Homeland War and experienced trauma which can indirectly be seen through drawing even after more than 15 years after the war had ended. The research was conducted on a sample of 125 patients of both genders treated in the Daily Hospital program of University Hospital Dubrava, Psychiatry Clinics. All the tested had trauma in their medical history and all of them met the PTSD diagnostic criteria, 75 examinees participated in the Homeland War and they represent the veteran group, and 50 examinees went through a stressful situation during peacetime and they represent the civilian group. All the examinees had to make two individual drawings, and the task was to portray feelings of term "love" (first drawing) and term "hate" (second drawing). They could choose motifs and colors freely. When portraying the term love, choice of motifs between the civilian and the veteran group wasn't considerably different, and only a small number of male veteran population (6.6%) drawings hinted at the connection with the Homeland War. The results between two groups are completely different in portraying the term hate. As much as 76% examinees from the veteran group have unequivocally and directly decided to portray wartime motifs, unlike the civilian group whose use of wartime motifs was just 10%. When choosing color, nearly 90% of the veteran group used neutral and cool colors to portray the term hate.
authors: Davor
authors: D
authors: Rak
authors: Aldenita
authors: A
authors: Matić
authors: Benedict
authors: B
authors: Rak
mesh_terms: D017523:Croatia; D005260:Female; D006252:Hate; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D014857:Warfare; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy