The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

  • Received 08.09.2025,
  • Revised 26.12.2025,
  • Accepted 27.01.2026
Download article Download article
Vol. 21, No. 1, 2026
  • memetic digital practices; social marginalisation; network communication; humour; psychological distress
  • https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-26-21-1-129-140
  • Pages 129-140

The paper presents a study on internet memes as a form of digital discourse that plays an important role in destigmatising mental health problems in the context of the protracted war in Ukraine. The relevance of the work is due to the growing psychological burden on the population and the need to find informal, socially acceptable ways to understand and verbalise psychological distress. The purpose of the study was to identify the destigmatising potential of memes of the Ukrainian-speaking segment of the social network Facebook and characterise the communication strategies through which they contribute to the acceptance and understanding of mental health problems in war conditions. The empirical material consisted of a corpus of 114 text memes collected in two publicly available Facebook communities – Psychology in memes, Meme therapy – in 2025. The study was based on the use of reflexive thematic analysis, providing for the identification of repetitive semantic patterns, discursive strategies, and latent meanings in the representation of psychological distress. The analysis focused solely on the verbal component of memes. The results of the study showed that memes form a socially safe discourse for discussing mental health issues. Within its framework, the following leading strategies are identified: normalisation of psychological difficulties as a component of everyday experience; ironic and self-ironic reflection of symptoms; criticism of social norms of productivity and emotional self-regulation; discursive legitimation of seeking psychological help without its normative imposition; formation of collective identification through inclusive language constructions; use of humour as a defence mechanism in conditions of chronic stress. It is established that humour does not devalue psychological problems and mental disorders, but reduces their symbolic threat, weakens the processes of self-stigmatisation and contributes to a sense of social solidarity. The results showed that internet memes in social networks perform not only an entertainment but also a socio-cultural regulatory function, supporting psychological adaptation and resilience of communities in the context of a prolonged social crisis and limited access to formalised psychological assistance resources

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