Shell Shock Research Paper

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Shell shock is defined as a psychological condition presumed to be caused by a traumatic experience occurring in warfare, however, there is still not an agreed cause of shell shock. Shell shock has been given many names over the years such as “war neurosis” and “neurasthenia”, however, today it is usually referred to as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to the fact that shells played very little part in the cause of shell shock. During the early stages of the war, it was believed that shell shock was caused by a physical injury to the nervous system. Denis Winter (p.136;1988) states that “80% of shell-shocked men…had a previous psychiatric record.” Winter also believed that the explosion of shells was the primary cause of shell shock (p.130;1988). …show more content…

Shell shock played a vital role in the development of psychiatry because people began experimenting on the shell-shocked men in order to seek new cures. Despite the breakthrough in psychology during the twentieth century, shell shock still baffles researchers today due to the amount of soldiers returning from the Middle-East suffering from similar conditions to shell shock. D. Stevenson (p.208;2012) believes that post-traumatic stress disorder is the “modern name” of the condition previously known as shell

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