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Psychological injury in the two World Wars: changing concepts and terms in German psychiatryCharité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Universität Hamburgp.schmiedebach{at}uke.uni-hamburg.de
Queen Mary, University of London, and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin This paper describes how German psychiatrists in two World Wars treated psychologically injured soldiers, and the concepts of related illnesses which they developed. The literature is reviewed, and symptomatolgy of patients and therapeutic practice in the wars are compared. By 1916 German psychiatrists had already established a concept of illness that continued to be used until World War II and beyond, albeit with a changing terminology. The vague term ‘war neurosis’ was commonly used, but covered different, partly overlapping concepts. Psychiatrists considered the disorder as a psychogenetic reaction based on an individual predisposition and denied a causal link between the experience of war and subsequent psychopathology. It may be concluded that psychiatrists developed theoretical models and practical treatment methods in a manner that met the social and military requirements of the time.
Key Words: history • military psychiatry • models of illness • post-traumatic stress disorder • psychogenic • psychological • shell-shock • society • trauma • ‘war neurosis’ • World War I • World War II
History of Psychiatry, Vol. 16, No. 1,
43-60 (2005) |
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