Monday, February 8, 2010
PTSD in the Trenches
PTSD is a common disorder that can be seen throughout history, but was only given proper name in the 1970s. There is a huge amount of trauma in any kind of war situation, but the kind of warfare that we see in World War One was particularly traumatic. The technology was geared more towards mass destruction than ever before. The machine gun could wipe out an entire line of men in a matter of seconds, whereas not long before the 1910s opponents would only shoot volleys at each other. Poison gas was particularly destructive and new. If soldiers didn't get their proper gear on quickly enough they would die a horrible, drawn out death. Witnessing deaths like this once in a lifetime would be enough to cause some serious mental scarring, but seeing it again and again in a war was extremely traumatic. The close quaters of the trenches certianly would have contributed to the high trauma level in WW1. Being so close to people when they die must have been an extremely scarring experience. Soldiers in WW1 could be standing right next to someone dying from any number of causes. Although PTSD was not officially named until much later in history, there were most certainly cases of it in the aftermath of WW1.
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Wow, its scary to think about being in war and seeing these things. For me, even shooting one time at my enemy would be scarring, but these soldiers had to shoot again and again, watch their own comrades get shot, and watch hundreds of people die at a time to the poisonous gas. When thinking about it, its a wonder every soldier there didn't suffer from PTSD.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the warfare in WWI was definitely particularly traumatic; the introduction of chlorine gas and trench warfare made war less civilized and made it a even more gruesome process.
ReplyDeleteWWI warfare was indeed as Will said definitely particularly traumatic, at that time nothing was unheard of anything went, you did what you had to do to survive out there and that made the war truly gruesome. There was not anything civilized about the war.
ReplyDeleteI agree with will that chlorine gas and trench warfare can affect the mind and cause people to do crazy things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what people are saying. Also, it was probably even more shocking for them because these mass killings were unexpected and new. Before it was slow, with one death at a time. Now, many people were dying because of one attack.
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