How War Trauma Evolved During World War I

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How War Trauma Evolved During World War I

Research question: How did war trauma evolve in clinical and scientific perspectives during World War I?

Primary Sources

Letters from the First World War, 1915. Trenches.

This source is a collection of letters soldiers wrote in the First World War to their family members and friends. It is a primary source because the original letters are scanned and attached alongside their transcripts. Therefore, the text will provide a credible source of information relating to the experiences of soldiers on the battlefield. Most of the letters clearly describe the trenches experiences, including shell shock. The soldiers detail how they face death constantly, and some of them report the demise of close friends or colleagues through these letters. One of the soldiers describes the medical condition of a colleague known to the letters recipient as being in a shocking state. While the soldiers do not have a medical understanding of war trauma, their vivid descriptions will support the symptoms of shell shock, as explained by other authors.

Mott, Frederick W. 1916. The Lettsomian lectures on the effects of high explosives upon the central nervous system. The Lancet 190 (4828): 441-553.

This article presents a recount of the symptoms of shell shock reported by patients during WWI. Those discussed include amnesia, headache, gait, tremors, sensory, cardiac, and vasomotor disturbances, loss of hearing, speech, sight, and terrifying dreams. The other describes his interactions with soldiers diagnosed with shell shock. Since the author was the soldiers doctor, this source offers a clinical view of war trauma in WWI. In addition to symptoms, the writer also details how some of his patients recovered from the condition. He also discusses being buried in the trenches as another cause of war trauma, even in the absence of bursting shells. While he uses the term neuroses, the use of the word war neuroses for trauma had not fully developed when he wrote the text. This primary source will support the topic by providing medical symptoms and associated treatments of war trauma during WWI.

Myers, Charles S. 1915. A contribution to the study of shell shock: Being an account of three cases of loss of memory, vision, smell, and taste, admitted into the Duchess of Westminsters War Hospital, Le Touquet. The Lancet 185 (4772): 316-320.

A doctor wrote this article to support the early research on shell shock. Instead of generally describing symptoms, the author focuses on three cases he was or had treated to provide details about the causes and signs of the condition. The article shows how war trauma symptoms became clearer during WWI than in previous battles. However, it does not include any new names for the disease but seeks to add to the evidence of shell shock. Through three of his patients, Myers describes all the details about the soldiers war accidents, hospital arrival conditions, and day-by-day healing processes. This in-depth medical description is important in revealing how war trauma was perceived, diagnosed, and treated during WWI. Therefore, the source will support the research topic by providing insight into the early clinical interpretations of war trauma as the soldiers experienced war on the frontlines.

Myers, Charles S. 2012. Shell shock in France, 1914-1918: Based on a war diary. Cambridge University Press.

Myers wrote this book from his war diary, which he completed during WWI in France. Treating soldiers who were injured on the battlefront provided him with extensive experiences of shell shock. Unlike in the article above, where he thoroughly discussed the cases of three patients, in this book, he widely covers the topic of war trauma during WWI. For example, he uses other names to describe the soldiers conditions, including mental repression, hysteria, and dissociation. While reflecting on his previous writings about shell shock, Myers acknowledges that the symptoms could have resulted from mental disturbances alone. Therefore, this source captures the evolving perception and interpretations of war trauma throughout WWI. In the early stages of the war, Myers and other physicians were convinced that the physical impacts of bursting shells caused the condition. However, he corrects this notion in this book, citing it as a mistake. This source will offer supporting evidence on the changing knowledge of war trauma during WWI.

Secondary Sources

Chamberlin, Sheena M. Eagan. 2012. Emasculated by trauma: A social history of post-traumatic stress disorder, stigma, and masculinity. The Journal of American Culture 35 (4): 358.

The author discusses the very beginning of war trauma, before its naming or recognition as a clinical or scientific condition. Before the 1800s, the nervous breakdown was not discussed as a medical or scientific condition but as a social issue related to masculinity and only affecting soldiers on the battlefield. Military physicians diagnosed it as exhaustion and recommended rest, three hots, and a cot. The argument was that soldiers, as men, were strong enough not to be traumatized or scared. Hence, the symptoms were perceived as indications of physical tiredness. Dr. Mendez DaCosta diagnosed the problem as a Soldiers Heart in 1867, medicalizing war trauma for the first time. Nevertheless, the conditions cause was debatable, attributed to the biological background, battlefield inflicted concussions, or psychological origin. This source will provide background information to the research as it details how war trauma was perceived prior to the WWI.

Crocq, Marc-Antoine, and Louis Crocq. 2022. From shell shock and war neurosis to posttraumatic stress disorder: A history of psychotraumatology. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience (2022).

This article discusses war trauma on the battlefields during World War I. The authors have explored the evolution of war trauma from the Napoleonic Wars to World War I and II and the first civilian experiences with traumatic experiences in the steam factories and railway accidents. In detailed writing, the authors have covered each significant event leading to todays PTSD diagnosis. The source provides solid evidence to back the research topic as it explores war trauma occurrences during WWI. In addition, it is inclined toward the scientific and clinical evolution of the condition.

Rivers, William HR. 1918. The repression of war experience. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 11 (Sect_Psych): 1-20.

The author of this article discusses war neuroses concerning WWI, which was still going on. He includes the soldiers hospital experiences with doctors and visiting family members and friends. Through an in-depth analysis of war trauma, the author explains how symptoms might arise at home after discharge or during treatment that did not exist immediately after the accident. One such example is anxiety neuroses, which emanate from trying to separate a soldier from the war altogether and ensuring that the war experience is forgotten. This source is considered a secondary source because it draws from the experiences of several other doctors who worked with soldiers during WWI. It will provide evidence to support the research because it only discusses war trauma during the timeframe selected for the study.

Jones, Edgar, Robert Hodgins Vermaas, Helen McCartney, Charlotte Beech, Ian Palmer, Kenneth Hyams, and Simon Wessely. 2003. Flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder: The genesis of a 20th-century diagnosis. The British Journal of Psychiatry 182 (2): 158-163.

This article discusses post-traumatic stress disorder throughout human history. However, the relevant part of this study is the section on WWI. The authors have introduced another term for war trauma used in the war: neurasthenia. The authors focused on flashbacks as a key symptom among soldiers affected by war trauma. The article will support research by providing statistics of the affected soldiers who reported having flashbacks.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Letters from the First World War, 1915. Trenches.

Mott, Frederick W. 1916. The Lettsomian lectures on the effects of high explosives upon the central nervous system. The Lancet 190 (4828): 441-553.

Myers, Charles S. 2012. Shell shock in France, 1914-1918: Based on a war diary. Cambridge University Press.

Secondary Sources

Chamberlin, Sheena M. Eagan. 2012. Emasculated by trauma: A social history of post-traumatic stress disorder, stigma, and masculinity. The Journal of American Culture 35 (4): 358.

Crocq, Marc-Antoine, and Louis Crocq. 2022. From shell shock and war neurosis to posttraumatic stress disorder: A history of psychotraumatology. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience (2022).

Rivers, William HR. 1918. The repression of war experience. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 11 (Sect_Psych): 1-20.

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