A War of NervesJonathan Cape, 2000 - 487 pages From shell-shock to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the fascinating story of how psychiatrists have tried to keep men fighting. The first case of shell-shock arrived at the Duchess of Westminster's Hospital - in the casino at Le Touquet - in September 1914. "I wish you could be here," the Oxford Professor of Medicine wrote to a friend, "in this orgy of neuroses and psychoses and gaits and paralyses. I cannot imagine what has got into the central nervous system of the men." "A War of Nerves" is a history of military psychiatry in the 20th century. It reaches back to the Western Front when modern war and medicine first met, and traces their uneasy relationship through the eras of shell-shock, combat fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder and Gulf War syndrome. Rich in character and detail and drawing on a vast range of unpublished diaries, interviews and papers, the book is at once an absorbing historical narrative and an intellectual detective story. |
Contents
The Shock of the Shell | 1 |
Doctors Minds | 5 |
ShellShock in France | 21 |
Copyright | |
25 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century Ben Shephard Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
American anxiety argued attack battle became began behaviour Bomber bombing brain Britain British Army Charles Myers civilian clinical CMAC combat command Craiglockhart cure death desert developed discipline disorders doctors dreams drug effect emotional evacuated experience fear feeling felt fighting force Foulkes France French Freud Freudian front line German going Grinker guilt History hospital hypnosis hysteria hysterical ibid idem interview Kardiner killed Lancet later leucotomy London Maghull medicine mental methods military psychiatry mind morale nerves nervous neurasthenia neurologist neuroses Northfield Passchendaele patients pensions physical Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder problems psychiatric casualties psychiatrists psychoanalysis psychological psychotherapy PTSD Rivers RWOCIS Salmon Sargant Sassoon sent sexual shell shell-shock shock social soldiers Stress suffering Symonds symptoms Syndrome talk therapy told took trauma treated treatment troops United Vietnam veterans W. H. R. Rivers warfare wartime Wehrmacht Wilfred Owen World wounded wrote York young