War of Nerves

Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century

AvBen Shephard

Häftad, Engelska, 2003

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Beskrivning

A War of Nerves is a history of military psychiatry in the twentieth century—an authoritative, accessible account drawing on a vast range of diaries, interviews, medical papers, and official records, from doctors as well as ordinary soldiers. It reaches back to the moment when the technologies of modern warfare and the disciplines of psychological medicine first confronted each other on the Western Front, and traces their uneasy relationship through the eras of shell-shock, combat fatigue, and post-traumatic stress disorder.At once absorbing historical narrative and intellectual detective story, A War of Nerves weaves together the literary, medical, and military lore to give us a fascinating history of war neuroses and their treatment, from the World Wars through Vietnam and up to the Gulf War. Ben Shephard answers recurring questions about the effects of war. Why do some men crack and others not? Are the limits of resistance determined by character, heredity, upbringing, ideology, or simple biochemistry?Military psychiatry has long been shrouded in misconception, and haunted by the competing demands of battle and of recovery. Now, for the first time, we have a definitive history of this vital art and science, which illuminates the bumpy efforts to understand the ravages of war on the human mind, and points towards the true lessons to be learned from treating the aftermath of war.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2003-03-30
Mått:156 x 235 x 33 mm
Vikt:671 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:512
Förlag:Harvard University Press
ISBN:9780674011199

Utforska kategorier

Krig och försvar inom Samhälle och politik
Psykiatri inom Medicin

Mer om författaren

Ben Shephard writes widely on psychiatry and its history. He was a producer on Thames Television's The World at War.

Recensioner i media

Has the American counseling industry actually amplified the difficulties of the Vietnam veterans?… By pulling more and more terrified men away from the front during the first world war, did the army only confirm to them the seriousness and irrevocable nature of their hysterical conversion syndromes? These and many others are the questions that are unflinchingly addressed in this disturbing and original book. Ben Shephard, a historian and producer of war documentaries, explores the psychic traumas and dramas created during the two world wars and since… [His book is] provocative, deeply shocking, moving and always compelling… This reviewer, at least, hopes that it is widely read.

Innehållsförteckning

Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Prologue: The Shock of the Shell 1. Doctors' Minds 2. Shell-Shock in France 3. Trench Work 4. The Somme 5. Psychiatry at the Front, 1917-18 6. Home Fires 7. Europeans 8. Arguments and Enigmas, 1917-18 9. 'Skirting the Edges of Hell' 10. Inquests 11. 'Will Peace Bring Peace?' 12. The Lessons of Shell-Shock 13. Dunkirk, the Blitz and the Blue 14. 'We Can Save those Boys from Horror' 15. Front-line Psychiatry 16. New Ways of War 17. D-Day and After 18. A Tale of Two Hospitals 19. The Helmeted Airman 20. Learning from the Germans? 21. Prisoners of War 22. A Good War? 23. Vietnam Doctors 24. From Post-Vietnam Syndrome to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 25. 'When the Patient Reports Atrocities...' 26. From the Falklands to the Gulf 27. The Culture of Trauma Notes Select Bibliography Index