Abstract
The thesis aimed to explore how various social groups perceived mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the British military. A literature review on brain provided insights on what constituted mTBI and the key issues arising from mTBI. Social representations theory was the overarching framework of inquiry. The thesis consists of four empirical studies. Three types of data - an official report on mTBI in the British military, a sample of the British public’s perception of the injury and a former British service personnel’s experience of the injury were subjected to analysis. A pluralistic approach was employed. The first type of data was subjected to two different types of analysis: a preliminary investigation and a deconstruction. In the first study discourse analysis was employed. Authors of the project report constructed mTBI as a phenomenon with a fair amount of uncertainty. Care plans for those with mTBI were constructed as already in place and of superior standards to their American counterpart. In the second study the researcher employed critical discourse analysis to deconstruct how the report’s authors framed the uncertain aspects of the injury in the first study to work up certainty about the controversial aspects of mTBI by discrediting the labelling of mTBI and marginalizing those presenting persistent symptoms. In the third study thematic analysis was employed. The general public constructed mTBI as having varied causes with a spectrum of symptoms and consequences besides being an occupational hazard the government should deal with. In the fourth study interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed. The former serviceman felt divorced from the military post injury. Despite not having his difficulties acknowledged by the military, he coped with the changes brought on by the injury positively framing his experiences. Throughout the empirical studies mTBI was represented as an uncertain phenomenon with many facets.