Who emotionally contained the deployed military? Trends in the dependence of former Argentine peacekeepers on their families, Haiti, 2004?2015

FREDERIC SABINA

The Politics of Military Families.State, Work Organizations, and the Rise of the Negotiation Household

Routledge

Año: 2019; p. 198 - 210

Haiti was different from other peacekeeping operations not just because it was the most complex military operation after the Malvinas/Falkland War, performed in times of democracy, but also because of the impact of the operational environment on military personnel, their families, and the ?military family?. Undoubtedly, the forced isolation and restrictions of the "big brother" represented by that "pressure cooker", posed unprecedented challenges. The Hatian experience demonstrates that the model of the ?military family? was challenged, while the model of the ?family of the military? became deeply strengthened in practice to contained the emotions of deployed servicemen.The narratives show the emotional dependence of military personnel on their families. Also, it shows how they compensate the lack of emotional containment of their families, and how to safeguard from problems of the "family of the military" breaking in during the mission. Consequently, the emotional work was performed by the trackers of negative feelings. Before the deployment, emotional trackers were the psychologists. During the deployment, non-commissioned officers and senior officers took over the role of the emotional tracker. Clearly, they decided on the rules that distinguished right from wrong feelings. Also, it was emotional work to reestablish emotional states apt for the military performance during deployment.