Shell Shock: A Coward's Disease Among Soldiers And Society

An outcome of World War I was a new medical disorder classified as Shell Shock. Shell Shock is a medical disorder developed to describe the symptoms that soldiers developed without a probable or obvious lesion as the cause after serving time on the war front. Shell Shock is one of the most prominent injuries of World War I; the symptoms varied among each soldier, treatments were still being developed, and doctors were still trying to understand the severity of the disorder. The symptoms soldiers described are due to the stress they encountered while they served on the front line. Shell Shock is a condition that soldiers have begun to develop after serving in the war.

The tactics used in World War I were radically different than that of previous wars. The majority of the war was fought in the trenches, and the war itself seemed to have no end. Due to this, the psychological impact of the war was unlike anything that had been seen before. During the early days of the war, the soldiers, on both sides, seemed to lack the dedication that would have been necessary to exterminate their enemy. However, as the war progressed, the desire to avenge their fallen comrades overcame their ethics and they began to kill their enemy indiscriminately. Surviving soldiers experienced a phenomenon that was, at that time, referred to as shell shock. Today we refer to this phenomenon as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At this time, this psychological condition was misunderstood and the doctors lacked the training necessary to effectively treat this condition.

Likenesses that identify with those of this disease can be found all through the story "The Things They Carried." Men and women of prior wars moreover mirrored the shared characteristics related to PTSD. In days of old, it was named "Shell Shock" and "Battle Fatigue." Because of studies directed by medical research organizations, e.g., The National Institute of Health (NIMH) we know and

Introduction: In  order  to  stop  the  spread  of  communism,  America  joined  the  vietnam  war. Many  young  men  were  drafted  into  this  war,  with  no  other  options  but  to  go  or  to  be  arrested.  Many  were  terrified  to  go  into  the  war,  and  tried  to  flee  the  United  States.  The  main  problem  was  not  even  just  during  the  vietnam  war,  it  was  after  the  war  was  over  and  troops  were  sent  home.  This  problem was  known  as  shell  shock,  or  what  we  now  call  Post  Traumatic  Stress  Disorder  (PTSD).  Throughout  the  turmoil  and  pain  of  the  Vietnam  war,  many young  soldiers  were  emotionally  distraught  and  treated  poorly  in  their  return home,  each  with  their  own  load  to  bear.

During World War I, similar symptoms arose among the soldiers. Physicians began calling it “shell shock” or “combat fatigue.” Charles Myers, a psychologist serving at the front, wrote that shell shock occurs “where the tolerable or controllable limits of horror, fear, and anxiety are overstepped.”(Thomas 11) Many of the soldiers were considered to be crazy. They were evacuated, hospitalized, and often treated with electric shock treatments. Men who wandered away from the front on their own were branded deserters and set before a firing squad.(Thomas 12)

The soldiers encountered rats and mud filled trenches daily, along with the high possibility of getting trench foot or shell shock. These trenches were rat-infested. Sometimes growing as large as a cat, these rats would scavenge on the dead corpses and spread disease throughout the soldiers and their food supply. This alone put the soldiers at high risk of disease, but the damp, muddy conditions caused an even more dangerous infection called trench foot. Trench foot is when the feet are exposed to the wet, unhygienic environment within the trenches, causing the foot to deform greatly, and turn red or blue, which would finally end in death. As it was common for the soldiers to be standing in water, mud or sludge, trench foot was not rare and effected at one point 80,000 soldiers within a period of two years. Another serious issue during the war was shell shock, which effected at least 80,000 soldiers during the entirety or the war. Unlike rat infestation and trench foot, shell shock was the psychological trauma the men who served of the front line suffered from. They suffered from panic attacks, loss of memory, ringing of the ears and more during the fighting, and for some was still reality years after returning from the battlefields. Medical aid during World War One was at low standard and often said the sufferers of shell shock were cowards and could not handle the brutality of war. Near the ending of the war

"Not long ago, most therapists who heard a story like Albert Grow's would have thought about what his experience in Vietnam did to his relationship with his family, his community and his sense of self. Few would have given much thought to what it did to his biochemistry. That is about to change. Grow, a policeman in Salem, New Hampshire, came back from Vietnam nearly 30 years ago on a "freezer flight"--a transport plane piled with body bags. At the Boston airport, a woman called him trash and spit in his face. Not long afterward, he punched out two coworkers in a photo lab because they wore black arm bands to honor the Vietnamese dead. After a brief stay on a psychiatric ward, he burned his Marine uniform in his parents' backyard. He avoided

America the beautiful, land of the free, but at what cost is that freedom attained? Freedom is usually attained through war and suffering. Many soldiers lose their lives fighting for their country. Even though many returned physically healthy, some of the men and women are fighting a new battle on the home front of their own minds. Living with something as mentally tormenting as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is something many veterans have to deal with on a daily basis. Not only do these men and women have to deal with the regret of their own actions, but they have to deal with the horrible treatment of those around them. They are living a life of torture knowing there is no cure; however, some people have found natural and positive ways to treat the symptoms. Even though many skeptics believe this disorder doesn’t exist, tests have been run proving the nightmare is as deep as

Shell shock is a type of post-traumatic stress disorder that occurred during World War I. Many Army officials tried to cover up shell shock because they wanted to keep those men in the battlefield. Doctors Charles S. Myers and William McDougall looked into shell shock and started doing studies with the soldiers that had shell shock. Shell shock did have a few treatments which consisted of a bromide, massage, electrical faradization, and a milk diet, but many people that shell shock should be treated with military discipline. Throughout the novel Maisie Dobbs, I saw several cases of shell shock. I also have noticed that people that had loved ones in the war also had a small case of shell shock.

The soldiers of World War I first coined the term shell shock. This was to identify soldiers who were suffering from physiological issues thought to have been caused by repeated bombings. Because this was new, doctors did not know the origins of shell shock or what treatments to employ. Soldiers were labeled as lazy, cowards and in need of military discipline.

While PTSD was not yet defined it was clear that these symptoms were caused because of the disturbing things that had been seen. With no treatments available and a stigma that the effected persons were cowards or scared soldiers were often sent home with no supervision. During World War I physicians began calling it “shell shock” or “combat fatigue”, they believed that concussions caused by the impact of shells disrupting the brain caused the symptoms. Treatments included hospitalization and electric shock therapy. By World War II medical personnel noticed that soldiers that were engaged in longer more intense fighting had much higher levels or psychiatric disturbances and started using the term battle fatigue or combat exhaustion. Soldiers were being labeled as fearful and lacking in discipline and PTSD was still not fully recognized as a disorder, at this time treatment included barbiturates.

1965: Each military battalion is provided with officers trained to treat psychological problems during the Vietnam war

Shell shock was the term that is used to describe the reaction of some of the soldiers to the trauma that they experienced during the war. Shell shock was a mystery to doctors at the time of the war and was assumed to be caused by the heavy artillery shells exploding, although the more common name for the psychological trauma that is used nowadays is PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is common among many soldiers and witnesses to intense happenings. Currently the only known treatment for PTSD is different types of psychotherapy and medications for depression and anxiety. However, soldiers in World War one didn't have such help.

With the start of first world war, numerous individuals both men and woman started to suffer other injurys other than just physical. Doctors would see patients come in with a nervous disorder with they thought was caused by the artillery blasts coming in contact with the human body. Because of these effects doctors would coin the famous term “Shell Shock”. Various country’s soldiers where having experiencing this problem. In Great Britain alone those treated for “Shell Shock” was reported to be approximately 80,000 but those figures are suspected to be much higher due to people not reporting it. The French and German military’s treated the affect soldiers as malingerers and giving the punishment of placing them on the front lines, closest to enemy bombardment to discourage others to follow their same example. Over time the higher ups realized that the problem wasn’t going away and had research done in the cause. Dr. Clovis Vincent provided an idea of the use of “torpedoing” which involves using electroconvulsive treatments. This is quickly abandon due to court cases of concerned citizens that the actions were to violent and also when one of the patients attacked him.

When a soldier enlists into the military forces they know they are going in to fight for their country and freedom for everyone. They spend months training and preparing for the war and what to come. They learn to fight, shoot, and kill enemies, but what they do not learn is how to cope with the after math of the war. Soldiers in war every year come home with many post traumatic effects from what they had witnessed. During world war two this was known as shell shock; however what can be concluded is that world war two impacted the soldiers emotionally and physiologically from the time they entered to post war.