Psychology of World War One
As revelation spread about a great war of many countries, panic among medical officials escalated. Psychologists, however, were preparing. At Harvard, Edward B. Tichener, who partook in constituting psychology as an experimental science, held the annual meeting of “experimentalists.” The Leadership of American Psychology members attended this meeting subsequent to American entry two days before. Upon discussing the psychological role in the war, the meeting progressed into an American Psychological Association (APA) emergency meeting. To assist with war efforts, the APA placed psychologists into ‘roles.’ These psychologists were to take in military recruits and develop group intelligence tests. More than three million military recruits were to be evaluated by job selection tests. Also, as an appraisal for problems pertaining to psychopathology, psychologists were positioned in army hospitals. Psychologist Harry Hollingworth was one of these psychologists. He was to examine and diagnose soldiers that had suffered from the mental illness “Shell Shock”—otherwise known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder went through gradual realization during World War One creating unimaginable statistics, symptoms, and cases.
In the medical field if any disorder, including war neurosis, was presumed physically damaging, a ‘wound stripe’ was placed around the left forearm of soldiers. If the disorder is considered “nervous but not physical,” soldiers were not pronounced as wounded. This meaning that the soldiers were ‘fit’ to return to the front. During the year of 1916, due to a tremendous amount of stress from the war, medical and military authorities were converted into believing that PTS...
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Books:
Freedheim, Donald, and Irving Weiner. Handbook of Psychology, History of Psychology. John Wiley & Sons, 2003. 33-34. Web.
Jones, Edgar. Time Capsule:Shell shocked. 43. WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA), 2012. 18. Web.< http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/shell- shocked.aspx>
Plante, Thomas. Contemporary Clinical Psychology. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. 44-45. Web.
Junger 125: Through this quote, Junger gives a realistic wake-up call to the readers. Depression and PTSD rates in soldiers are so high because they come back from war, to a society that is at war with itself. Junger concludes that modern society is completely disconnected from our tribal instincts, this disconnection is what leads to PTSD and other mental disorders. This disconnection is shown through the hostility that civilians in America have towards one another, as well as the many statistics Junger provides on a variety of topics.
He supports his claim by giving statistical facts of how many veterans exposed to Agent Orange during their time at war requested examinations and counseling by Veteran Affairs. Scott then states that men of all wars, not just the Vietnam War, struggled to gain support in treatment for war related injuries. He thoroughly supports Spake’s claim of psychological distress within his article by stating that when at war claims of distress were low, but once home, mental and physical anguish intensified. Scott’s purpose is to explain, inform, and describe the mental trials of Agent Orange exposed war veterans in order to make readers aware of the hardships the men faced. Scott creates an informative tone for readers of higher education and an interest in psychological disorders and war
Before World War II, Britain was strictly divided into classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower working class. Once born into a class, it was almost impossible to leave; people were bound to classes for life. The structure was stern and rigid. George Orwell even called England (and by extension Britain) “the most class-ridden country under the sun.” Classes tolerated each other, but the “upper and middle class people were brought up to believe the lower classes dirty and inferior,” creating an environment of stark inequality (The Class System). The small upper class held the majority of the wealth and employed much of the large lower class as servants, paying them menial wages. The middle class, who consisted of doctors, shopkeepers, lawyers, and people in similar professions, remained sandwiched in the center. On September 7, 1940 the blitz began and bombs started to rain down on London. However, the force of the bombs did little to blast away the walls that separated and distinguished the classes.
The war scarred the soldiers permanently, if not physically then mentally. After the war the soldiers usually never recovered from the war. Two of the most common side affects of the war were shell shock and stir crazy. When suffering from shell shock a soldier’s brain doesn’t function properly and the man is a “vegetable”. This means the man is alive but he can’t do anything because he is in a state of shock because of the war. Stir crazy is a mental illness caused by the firing of so many bullets that when no bullets are heard by the victim he goes insane. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started. Young recruits were first sent because the veterans knew they were going to come back dead. "When we run out again, although I am very excited, I suddenly think: “where’s Himmelstoss?” Quickly I jump back into the dug-out and find him with a small scratch lying in a corner pretending to be wounded.” (P 131) Even the big men like Himmelstoss are scared to go fight. They too go through the mental illnesses like stir crazy and shell shock. “He is in a panic; he is new to it too.
When a person sees a new advertisement or commercial for their favorite shoe company, they immediately want to go and check out their latest designs. Similarly, propaganda uses different sources of media to encourage people to buy a certain item that will benefit their country or an organization. Propaganda was used in World War II to encourage citizens to buy certain tools or participate in certain events to help the soldiers fighting. Both video and radio advertisements were used by the Allied and Axis powers to encourage citizens to aid the war effort, resulting in a rise of nationalism and resentment towards opposing sides.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops when an individual experiences or lives through a life-threatening event. (NIH 2010) These individuals react with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. On a daily basis, the Troops overseas live through life-threatening events. These events are why 12-30% of warfighters develop combat-related PTSD. Troops are prepared for duty but are unprepared for psychological effects of war. We can witness the effects of PTSD in American Literature. One unusual example of these impacts could be shown in the novel, The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a symbol of combat-related PTSD, which he inquires during World War One(WWI) while stationed with the 17th Infantry. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is described to have many symptoms and risk factors of PTSD. Jay Gatsby’s
The actual business of physical injury had added the more subtle process of slaughter of morale, a far more difficult, but none the less effective, method of warfare. The Germans have for a long time preached it. They practiced it from the first, 'frightfulness' being merely the German interpretation of the theory of the destruction of morale. Bernhardi lays as much stress upon it as upon perfection of maneuver. The Allies, perhaps keener students of psychology, substituted persuasion for brutality, and developed a system of military propaganda that has never before been equaled.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after a traumatic event (Riley). A more in depth definition of the disorder is given by Doctor’s Nancy Piotrowski and Lillian Range, “A maladaptive condition resulting from exposure to events beyond the realm of normal human experience and characterized by persistent difficulties involving emotional numbing, intense fear, helplessness, horror, re-experiencing of trauma, avoidance, and arousal.” People who suffer from this disease have been a part of or seen an upsetting event that haunts them after the event, and sometimes the rest of their lives. There are nicknames for this disorder such as “shell shock”, “combat neurosis”, and “battle fatigue” (Piotrowski and Range). “Battle fatigue” and “combat neurosis” refer to soldiers who have been overseas and seen disturbing scenes that cause them anxiety they will continue to have when they remember their time spent in war. It is common for a lot of soldiers to be diagnosed with PTSD when returning from battle. Throughout the history of wars American soldiers have been involved in, each war had a different nickname for what is now PTSD (Pitman et al. 769). At first, PTSD was recognized and diagnosed as a personality disorder until after the Vietnam Veterans brought more attention to the disorder, and in 1980 it became a recognized anxiety disorder (Piotrowski and Range). There is not one lone cause of PTSD, and symptoms can vary from hallucinations to detachment of friends and family, making a diagnosis more difficult than normal. To treat and in hopes to prevent those who have this disorder, the doctor may suggest different types of therapy and also prescribe medication to help subside the sympt...
World War 1...what is it? Normally when you think about it you must be wondering how on earth am I still alive! World War 1 was also known as The Great War that took place from 1914-1918 within most parts of Europe. Within this informative essay I will be talking about the features, the results, the end, and how World War 1 changed the lives of the Europeans.
World War I was a war of new technology. There were machine guns, gas bombs, and trenches. Because of this new technology, World War I was also a war filled with atrocities. The men fighting in the war experienced horrors that no human being should have ever experienced. The novel Regeneration by Pat Barker addresses the question of how these soldiers were supposed to recover from these horrors. For Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, there was only one answer -- psychology. On page 29, a patient of Rivers' named Anderson tells Rivers, "That's what you Freudian Johnnies are on about all the time, isn't it? Nudity, snakes, corsets." Freudian therapy is also alluded to on pages 31 and 46, although Freudian methods of analyzing dreams, recognizing symbols, and understanding the unconscious are constants. Rivers helps to bring the traumatized soldiers back to a reality where they can accept life and the duties that they must fulfill through the use of a psychology which draws upon Freud's theories. The appearance of Freudian psychology in Regeneration helps to acknowledge the frailty of the human mind, body, and soul. Rivers' use of psychology is a way to restore the delicate balance of life, giving renewal to a life thought hopeless by its possessor.
Throughout history there have been records of soldiers experiencing ‘shell shock,’ ‘battle fatigue,’ ‘gross stress reaction,’ and ‘soldier’s heart.’ The soldiers who suffered from these combat induced physiological traumas were branded as cowards, and removed from positions, reprimanded and even court marshaled. Vietnam veterans began to experience similar ailments immediately following the war. This new surge of afflicted soldiers forced the public as well as medical professionals and government officials to take notice of what is now ...
“The months pass by. The summer of 1918 is the most bloody and most terrible. The days stand like angels in blue and gold, incomprehensible, above the ring of annihilation.” (Remarque 230). This quote is an example of an event that a soldier would probably re-play in their mind causing Post -traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is a disorder caused by experiencing a traumatic or very stressful experience, such as war. This can cause emotional problems for people like Paul and his friends in All Quiet on the Western Front.
The United States military continues to engage in one of the longest periods of combat operations in our nation’s history. One of the results is an increase in the amount of persons suffering Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2000), a precursor to PTSD is the experience of an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury to self or others. Grossman (2009) argues that an additional factor, the emotional and spiritual response to killing another human being, also takes a tremendous toll on the mental health of returning soldiers. Forty-eight to sixty–five percent of soldiers returning from Operation Enduring Freedom have reported killing an enemy combatant, while 14–28% have reported killing a noncombatant (Hoge, Castro, Messer, McGurk, Cotting, & Koffman, 2004). This paper will discuss Grossman’s (2009) views on the psychological cost of killing others in combat.
Does a soldier have wounds that a doctor cannot see? Sometimes the most harmful effects of war are emotional wounds. Hemingway displays the theme that war causes emotional damage in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Some veterans suffer from emotional pain as a result of war, whereas others are able to grow from the experience. Hemingway’s characters exemplify the effects of combat because World War I had a negative impact on them; the veterans lead meaningless lives filled with masculine uncertainty.