Shell Shock Research Paper

Lewis Yealland was a Canadian doctor working in England during the first World War. He is well known for his work with shellshock patients. “Shellshock was the blanket term applied by contemporaries to those soldiers who broke down under the strain of war.” ( Canadian Museum of History) It is now considered as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but was not very well understood in Yealland’s time. Doctors of that period thought it was a result of physical damage done to the brain by exploding shells and didn’t believe it was a real illness. Yealland, along with many colleagues, decided that soldiers who showed symptoms of shellshock or PTSD displayed a lack of courage, discipline and sense of duty (Canadian Museum of History). Clearly, he opposed the idea of storytelling as a means of

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.

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

It was not until the 1980’s that the diagnosis of PTSD as we know it today came to be. However, throughout history people have recognized that exposure to combat situations can have profound negative impact on the mind s and bodies of individuals in these situations. But there are other catastrophic events that can have such profound impact on people resulting in PTSD…

The Vietnam war was one of the most alarming and dangerous wars to fight. Every step in the Vietnam jungle was taken cautiously. The guerrilla warfare used by the Vietcong was frightening to anticipate. The majority of the United States army was only that of young men who had been chosen through the draft. Young men going to school and living a life at home in safety all the sudden having to make an overwhelming transition into a deadly, violent and nearly hopeless battlefield. This was only the beginning of problems for the future vietnam survivors. The violence of the Vietnam War brought upon the recognition of Post Traumatic Stress

The chapter ‘Clinical Histories: From Soldier’s Heart to PTSD’ from the book ‘Fields of Combat’ by Erin Finley, examines U.S. military community’s perception of combat stress casualties. From the Civil War times until now, there has been growth in the understanding that soldiers face extreme psychological consequences, like behavioral and functional problems, after returning home from war. In 1980, this behavioral and functional problem is formally recognized as Post-Traumatic Stress order (PTSD) in the U.S. and it was internationally recognized in the late 1980’s. Not only was the diagnosis given to survivors of combat, but also noncombat traumatic experiences, such as rape, natural disaster, rape and etc. The chapter looks at the historical

Finley’s “From Soldier’s Heart to PTSD,” was about the evolution of how clinicians, physiatrists, and the military viewed what was happening to the men who went into war. At first, the symptoms that the soldiers were going through was referred to as “shell shock.” This lead to the debate whether the physical brain as opposed to the psychological mind could determine human behavior so “shell shock” became “war neurosis.” The increasing number of cases lead to the creating of the triage system which seem to help the soldiers. After many other war, physiatrists were still noticing the same symptoms even though the number of cases decreased. Advocates for the Vietnam war tried to make the government realized that these soldier where suffering due

Estimates of up to ten percent of officers and four percent of enlisted soldiers suffered from shell shock in WWI (Macleod, 2004). For an officer to receive a diagnosis of shell shock meant recovery in pleasant surroundings similar to a resort. Enlisted soldiers on the other hand were generally kept close to the battlefield and treated as military disappointments. Those close to artillery fire received a diagnose of physical trauma and those not in close contact with artillery fire where labeled as

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.

But there were documenting the disorder as early as 1761.One physican says there are 3 stages to the disorder. First stage, hallucination. Second, period of fever and prominent gastrointestinal symptoms. Third, anger and depression. Another physician noted that soldiers had nostalgia of war. Before the disorder was an actual disorder they called it “shell shock” in 1919. It received the name “shell shock” regarding the effects of artillery shells reaction of the explosion. A doctor observed civil war veterans describe it as overstimulation of the heart's nervous system. For the war veterans to managed this so called syndrome the took drugs. After World War 1 post traumatic stress was known as Combat Stress Reaction. It was sometimes misdiagnosed as multiple disorders such as acute stress disorder, adjustment disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, Brief psychotic disorder, depression and panic

The enduring mental and physical impacts of war and violence have long been of interest psychologists, sociologists and other researchers, with diagnostic antecedents to post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-linked pathologies — from World War I-era “shell-shock” to the mid-century coinages like “gross stress reaction” — reaching back decades. And it shouldn’t be surprising that Civil Rights activists often call themselves “veterans” — martial terminology that researchers like Carl Bell, a professor of psychology and public health at the University of Chicago, consider apt.

“Shellshock” by Roger J. Spiller is an article about the history of exposing and diagnosing PTSD with evidence compiled from multiple countries around the world who have experienced warfare. The writer describes a vast array of physical symptoms with no visible injuries associated with combat (especially those serving in the front lines), the idealism for becoming a soldier of glory in battle, the extent to which the damages from these mental cases caused armies worldwide, and a conclusion that democracy and the industrial revolution influenced the end of those suffering from the disorder in silence.

Shell shock is seen as a coward’s disease among the soldiers and society. Victims of this disease are often treated with unbearable cruel treatments like shock treatments. 4 out of 5 victims of shell shock won’t be able to return to the active military service. With the war over being this disease is seen by people as a way for men to get away with things they’re doing like crimes or unwillingness to work. The common reaction to these men suffering is that they’re unmanly or soft. Shell shock isn’t a coward’s disease but a disease caused by the experiences a soldier faced in the front lines of the Great War. The trenches where the war was fought weren’t a pleasant place to be. Many soldiers came back with physical illnesses

Because of this statement then we must assume that PTSD has always been around but never identified as PTSD until the 20th century. It has been called many names but the causes and symptoms are the same. Reports of stress associated with famous historical battles appear as early as the 6th century BC. Writing discovered from three thousand years ago by an ancient Egyptian scribe named Hori described his feeling before going into battle “You determine to go forward. . . . Shuddering seizes you, the hair on your head stands on end, your soul lies in your hand.” (Bentley, The VVA Veteran, 1991, March/April 2005). In 1678 Swiss military physicians defined Nostalgia as a condition characterized by symptoms of depression, home sickness, poor sleep patterns, weakness, loss of appetite, anxiousness, inattentive, fever, rapid, and erratic heart activity. German doctors identified these symptoms as “heimweh,” or “homesickness” while the French called it “maladie du pays,” and the Spanish “estar roto,” or “to be broken” (Bentley, The VVA Veteran, 1991, March/April 2005). No matter that the name was different, it is evident that fear and trauma from military actions were causing similar

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.