Postwar trauma and recollections in psychiatric records and autobiographical sources of women from the North Adriatic region

Verginella, Marta (author)

The study examines war and postwar trauma among women in the North Adriatic region through psychiatric records from the State Archives in Trieste and the Psychiatric Hospital in Ljubljana, alongside autobiographical sources. It focuses on clinical cases in which women linked psychological distress to wartime violence, atrocities, and postwar hardships, particularly those affecting national minorities in border areas. The author critically questions medical interpretations of war-related trauma, noting that doctors often avoided directly addressing its causes. Special attention is given to linguistic conflicts between patients and physicians, which at times influenced diagnosis and treatment. To broaden the analysis, the study integrates published and unpublished memoirs, offering a fuller understanding of women’s traumatic experiences, including those who never entered psychiatric institutions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: psychiatry, war trauma, borders, autobiographical sources, violence, Northern Adriatic
• Typology: 1.16 - Independent Scientific Component Part or a Chapter in a Monograph
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 37-65
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-187259
• UDC: 94(262.3-13)"19"
• DOI: 10.5117/9789048574551-2
• COBISS.SI-ID: 290300419
• Publication date in RUL: 09.09.2026

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Women, violence and trauma in wartime and postwar Northeastern Adriatic
• Editors: Marta Verginella
• Place of publishing: Budapest ... [etc.]
• Publisher: CEU Press
• Year: 2026
• ISBN: 978-90-4857-455-1
• COBISS.SI-ID: 290298883

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: psihiatrija, vojne travme, meje, avtobiografski viri, nasilje, Severnojadranski prostor

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 742683
• Name: Post-war trasistions in gendered perspective: the case of the North-Eastern Adricatic Region
• Acronym: EIRENE

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0235-2022
• Name: Slovenska zgodovina