Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918Southard, Elmer Ernest
History
Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918
Southard, Elmer Ernest
War neuroses; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
_Re_ homosexuality in the Italian army, Lattes has made a special
study. The effeminate homosexual is decidedly unfit for the army, being
unable to stand the war stress. Homosexuals diminish army morale.
The cases of functional effeminacy with normal physique are likewise
unfortunate for the morale of active units, though they may be employed
in garrison duty and office work. The medical decision in these cases
may prove difficult unless a broad interpretation of the concept
“psychopathic” is allowed to prevail.
Psychopathic: suicidal, then self-mutilative.
=Case 193.= (MACCURDY, July, 1917.)
An English soldier as a child had night terrors and fear of the dark;
as a youth wanted to throw himself down from heights; took delight
in seeing animals killed; was shy with both sexes; was never able to
run great distances; was taken from school at the age of fifteen for
weakness, and had always been subject to headaches, somewhat improved
by lenses.
During training sharp pains appeared in the left groin that grew
better when the man lay down. These pains were regarded as hysterical.
Thereafter began shortness of breath, pain above the heart, with
palpitations and occasional attacks of dizziness. After a short sick
leave he insisted upon going to the front, though his superior officer
thought it unwise, and, after a period of seventeen months training,
was finally sent to France in September, 1916.
He was at first somewhat afraid of shells and, though he soon got
used to the shells, the horror of the war grew on him, with pity for
the Germans as much as for the British. He became depressed over his
weakness and when his commanding officer committed suicide got obsessed
with the idea of committing suicide himself. He went so far as to drive
a knife into his upper lip and to smash a looking-glass to avoid seeing
himself. After a long spell of trench duty he had to be sent home
incapacitated.
In hospital in England he was depressed and suicidal. He began to want
to mutilate himself, yet found that a slight pain and the drawing of
blood was all that he really craved. Of course, he had been a failure,
but now he rationalized the failure by a comfortable conviction that
he should never have been sent to the front. He complained of memory
and attention disorder, insisted that he was physically incapable of
outdoor exercise, complained of headache if he stayed indoors. He said
he wanted to go back to the front; knew, however, that he could not,
and even refused to consider the possibility of getting well to work
at home. At the time of report he argued there was nothing left but
suicide.
Bombardment: Psychasthenia?
=Case 194.= (LAIGNEL-LAVASTINE AND COURBON, July, 1917.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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