Soldiers Suppressed War Traumas, Government Ignored Emotional Damages in Post-WWII Finland

Presenting findings from "The War That Follows Peace," at the Academy of Finland science breakfast, researcher Ville Kivimäki described the effects of war psychiatrists in shaping Finnish culture following the Second World War. While psychiatrists felt that soldiers had re adapted to civilian society very well, Kivimäki owed this not to an absence of problems, but rather to war psychiatrists putting the blame for long-term psychological problems on the soldiers themselves:

"Refusing to talk about traumatic war experiences is related to a deep-seated culture of shame and very limited resources for veterans to express their traumas. War psychiatry had a profound impact on the creation of this culture. Even though the restrictive and stigmatizing aspects of war psychiatry might seem repulsive, it did establish a certain type of reality, defined possibilities for the existence of soldiers and veterans, and created tension between traumatic war experiences and the culturally acceptable forms of expressing them."

Professor Petri Karonen also presented findings from the project which showed that the Finnish government ignored the psychological impact of the war as it focused economic and political damages:

"In spite of instabilities in foreign and domestic policy, the state was able to make the transition from war to peace with almost no advance planning whatsoever, thus demonstrating that the state apparatus, which proved flexible during the war, was capable of solving major problems encountered as from the autumn of 1944. The Finnish government and public offices focused their attention on achieving short-term goals and tackling more essential national problems, such as directing resources to the economy and foreign policy. This, however, also failed to address such matters as minimizing the adverse emotional impact of war.”

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Shame prevented soldiers from expressing war traumas
The Finnish government failed to address the adverse emotional impact of war...