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
“I was so awfully sorry to see him so miserable. I began to
cry and was startled by every train coming from the opposite
direction and by every loud noise. I was stared at by everybody
in Frankfort and I could only cry more. Then a soldier scolded
me because I was running senselessly up and down. Finally I got
into the Leipzig train. Another guard questioned me. Everything
then got more and more confused in me; I heard my mother
call; then I heard shooting again; and finally I was entirely
confused. I came to my senses in a room in the station toward
evening, and was frightened again at a loud noise somewhere
or a passing train. Then I was told what I had done in the
train. I had cried out and raved, tried to get out of the car,
called for my father and mother, wanted to go home, imitated
shooting; allowed myself to be calmed a little, but began to
shout again at every loud noise. When I was out of the train
I bit a soldier and tore his whole coat open, so then I was
carried to the hospital here in an auto. Up to this time I have
been able to calm myself very well. The physician said that it
was quite natural that I should not have very strong nerves
yet. I must have beaten about and got knocked against things a
good deal. There are bruises on my head and I am covered with
black-and-blue spots.”
A British soldier’s account of his shell-shock.
=Case 227.= (BATTEN, January, 1916.)
A British soldier, 22 years, who went out to France in November, 1914,
remained well until March 12, 1915, when after shell explosion, he
became unconscious for half an hour, and on recovery found he was deaf
and dumb. He was able to think of words but could not say them. He
remained dazed and frightened for a time, and still wakes up with a
start at night.
He was admitted to the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and
Epileptic, March 25, 1915, and on March 27 recovered his speech
suddenly and spontaneously. By March 29 he had completely recovered
and talked well. Dr. Batten remarks “how perfect the memory may be
up to the time of concussion, and how complete the mechanism is for
expressing the ideas in written words when that for spoken words is
abolished”; which may be seen from the patient’s own account, as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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