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Chapter 22: “People Like Me Don’t Get Mentally Ill”: Social Identity Theory, EMDR, and the Uniformed Services

DOI:

10.1891/9780826163424.0022

Authors

  • Royle, Liz

Abstract

This chapter begins with a cultural perspective explaining how the social group identity of Uniformed Services Personnel (USP) influences their attitudes toward mental illness and psychotherapy. It considers the perceived differences between USP and mental health professionals, and how this gap can be bridged, before discussing more specifically how therapists can bring this information into their eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) practice. The chapter illustrates this throughout with case material from three USP who served in the UK Armed Forces before joining the police service and who self-define with a strong USP social identity: The first with 10 years Army service displayed symptoms of psychological trauma but would not access treatment. The second with 9 years Royal Navy service was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and received EMDR. The third with 6 years Army service was also diagnosed with PTSD and had nondirective therapy before being offered EMDR.