Shell shock: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:45, 21 November 2011

The term "shell shock" was used during the First World War to describe the trauma soldiers suffered serving on the war's front line. The term was coined in 1917 by Medical Officer Charles Myers. It was also known as "war neurosis" or "combat stress". Nowadays it is mostly referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The horror of trench warfare and its consequences was often thematised in literature, e.g. in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and with Lord Peter Wimsey, the protagonist of Dorothy Sayers’s works of detective fiction.

The Shell Shocked Soldiers

Mentally broken soldiers were unable to deal with the terror, brutality and cruelty they experienced in the first mass industrial war. Haunted by images of battle scenes, men fighting in the warfare trenches were deeply traumatised. Therefore, the war also had an heavy impact on the individual. 80,000 soldiers of the British army (2%) were diagnosed to suffer from shell shock between 1914 and 1918. By 1916, already over 40 per cent of the fallen soldiers at the front lines were victims of shell shock. For many suffering from the condition, the psychological trauma did not stop with the end of the war. 20,000 men were still treated of shell shock after 1918. They could not manage to banish painful memories of warfare from their minds. At that time, the general public interpreted the war neurosis as a sign of weakness or even cowardice so that there was little sympathy for those affected. Hence some of them were killed by their own comrades. Some fled the battlefields due to panic attacks and were later sued for desertion. While some even committed suicide, others were thought to be malingerers and sent back to the front.

Symptoms

Tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of concentration and headaches were early symptoms of shell shock. But soon soldiers returned from the trenches paralysed and mute, sometimes even deaf and blind. Typical symptoms of a breakdown were getting worse and also included anxiety, hysteria, limping, muscle contractions, nightmares, insomnia, heart palpitations, dizziness, disorientation, depression and loss of appetite. Yet symptoms varied widely in intensity. Doctors struggled with this disease pattern as they had not seen such conditions before. Initially, the symptoms were thought to be physical effects caused by a bursting shell that injured the brain. This is where the name “shell shock” derives from. As a consequence, medical officers increasingly began emphasising psychological factors as providing sufficient cause for breakdown.

Medical Treatment

Special hospitals for traumatised soldiers had to be build as there was not enough space in the hospitals already existing. Except for few cases, a successful therapy was generally hopeless as there was no experience with such a new psychological phenomenon and hence no therapeutic approach. The treatment of shell shocked men was often harsh and included solitary confinement, electric shocks, shaming, physical re-education and emotional deprivation. “Lucky” men were treated with a variety of cures that included hypnosis, massage, rest and dietary treatments.

At Newton Abbott's Seale Hayne in Devon treatment was revolutionary. This hospital treated shell shocked patients with dignity and sympathy. The army major Arthur Hurst was known at Seale Hayne for his “miracle treatments” (BBC) and his ability to heal 90 per cent of the nervous wrecks in one session with dramatic strategies of cure. Hurst encouraged his patients to use their creativity while working in peace and quite in the countryside. He even comforted them to shoot and rekindle their memories in reconstructed settings of the trenches. Hurst's pioneering approach is said to be a miracle that saved the lives of many broken soldiers.

References

BBC Inside Out. Shell Shock. 2004. Accessed 19 Nov 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/extra/series-1/shell_shocked.shtml>

Duffy, Michael. A Multimedia History of World War One. 2009. Accessed 19Nov 2011. <http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/shellshock.htm>

Reid, Fiona. Broken Men. Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain 1914-1918. London: Continuum, 2010.

Revision as of 23:20, 19 November 2011 view source K.schr (talk \| contribs) 22 edits m →The Shell Shocked Soldiers ← Older edit		Revision as of 12:45, 21 November 2011 view source Pankratz (talk \| contribs) 4,607 edits No edit summary Newer edit →
Line 1:		Line 1:
	The term "shell shock" was used during the [[First World War]] to describe the ~~psychological~~ trauma soldiers suffered serving on the war's front line. The term was coined in 1917 by Medical Officer Charles Myers. It was also known as "war neurosis" or "combat stress". Nowadays it is mostly referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).		The term "shell shock" was used during the [[Great War\|First World War]] to describe the trauma soldiers suffered serving on the war's front line. The term was coined in 1917 by Medical Officer Charles Myers. It was also known as "war neurosis" or "combat stress". Nowadays it is mostly referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
	The horror of trench warfare and its consequences was often thematised in literature, e.g. in [[Virginia Woolf]]'s ''[[Mrs Dalloway]]'' and with Lord Peter Wimsey, the protagonist of Dorothy Sayers’s works of detective fiction.		The horror of trench warfare and its consequences was often thematised in literature, e.g. in [[Virginia Woolf]]'s ''[[Mrs Dalloway]]'' and with Lord Peter Wimsey, the protagonist of Dorothy Sayers’s works of detective fiction.