The Challenge of Integrating Individual and Social Self-Identities Among Israeli Combat Veterans

Abstract Military service can foster a sense of efficacy, self-value, and belonging, but it can also lead to longitudinal stress and inner conflict. Although combat veterans often face complex challenges in regulating long-term military influences, the formation of a postservice adult identity is particularly challenging, because combat experiences may affect their personal and public identities. The discrepancy between veterans’ strengths and vulnerable self-states—and perceptions of themselves as resilient—further complicates veterans’ postservice adaptation. Drawing on Bromberg’s [Contemp Psychoanal 32(4):509–535, 1996; Dissociation and the dissociative disorders: DSM-V and beyond, Routledge, 2009] multiple self-states theory and relational psychological approaches, this study explored how combat veterans cope with the need to integrate their personal and public identities upon discharge from army service and how clinical social work can assist in this process. Using a qualitative interpretive phenomenological approach, semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 male Israeli combat veterans. Researchers identified three primary adaptation strategies employed by participants: (a) preserving a dominant soldier identity that overshadows other identities; (b) splitting between diverged identities, using dissociation to manage traumatic experiences and conflicting self-aspects; and (c) blending conflicting identities in a balanced way through therapy, creative expression, and peer support. These findings highlight the complex interplay between military service and identity development, emphasizing the need to provide veterans with opportunities to process combat-related experiences and achieve a balanced, coherent sense of self after their discharge. This research contributes to clinical social work by providing insights into effective therapeutic approaches for supporting veterans in their identity integration process, highlighting social workers’ role in this process, and informing both practice and policy in veteran care.