Pre-WW1 PTSD

I remember reading somewhere PTSD has to do with the almost of time you spend in battle. This is also why PTSD was so bad in Vietnam, the mobility of helicopters meant that soldiers were in almost constant combat.

Before WW1 soldiers spent most of their time marching or sitting around before a decisive battle.

>>1460337
With the amount of time*

>>1460337
Thanks, I guess that makes sense.

There were likely plenty of cases, just not a lot was written about it

Text below is from Shakespeare:

Hotspur’s wife, Kate, was complaining about her husband’s regular involvement in mortal combats and his consequent odd behaviour:

O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?
For what offence have I this fortnight been
A banish’d woman from my Harry’s bed?
Tell me, sweet lord, what is’t that takes from thee
Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?
Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
And start so often when thou sit’st alone?
Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
And given my treasures and my rights of thee
To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch’d,
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars;
Speak terms of manage [horsemanship] to thy bounding steed;
Cry ‘Courage! to the field!’ And thou hast talk’d
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets,
Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin,
Of prisoners’ ransom and of soldiers slain,
And all the currents of a heady fight.
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirr’d thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;
And in thy face strange motions have appear’d,
Such as we see when men restrain their breath
On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these?
Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
And I must know it, else he loves me not.

It would seem to me that mental illness wasn't exactly a concern with 18th and 19th century given that they were either revolting against or attempting to preserve an empire.

Also, PTSD wasn't recognized as an actual disorder until 1980.

I guess the horrors of war were overshadowed by the glory of the state.

There's some good readings on PTSD from soldiers being treated during the American Civil War, especially soldiers who had to fight battles in quick succession during the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg.

Tho I would argue that PTSD became a more apparent problem as battles got longer and people were in the fight every second of their day. Most line battles during the 19th century and earlier would take 1-4 days, whereas the trench battles of WWI had soldiers in danger for 6-8 months at a time, only to be rotated back in for 8 more months of danger, shit like that will really wear down your mental state faster than a 3 day line battle.

Also, please forgive my sloppy generalization about 18th and 19th century war.

>>1460311
>I'm not convinced your average 18th century soldier never saw enough death to not suffer PTSD.

PTSD has nothing to do with how much death you experience, that's just something that can influence.

PTSD is caused by trauma, more specifically trauma over long periods of time.

The human mind is very good at handling small bursts of stress. If you're a caveman, you have to be able to handle the occasional death or injury or lack of food so it wouldn't be useful to melt down every time something traumatic happened. That's why a single battle won't cause PTSD, because it might only last a day or a few ours and the only time you're in any real danger is when you're directly in combat so your mind can rest. Not to say people back then didn't get PTSD but it was more rare.

What the human mind cant handle is continuous stress over long periods. If you're in a position where you can't relax, your brain is gonna get damaged over time. Sitting in a trench, constantly getting bombarded with artillery is extremely hard. You know that any one of those shells could potentially hit you. It's extremely loud and the ground is always shaking, constantly reminding you that you could die any second now. Stick your head out of the trench and you might get shot by a sniper. Try to run somewhere and you might get killed by a mine. Knowing that you could literally die at any time now and there's nothing you can do about it is extremely fucking traumatic.

"A strange prodigy likewise happened at this
fight. Epizelus, the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick
of the fray, and behaving himself as a brave man should, when suddenly
he was stricken with blindness, without blow of sword or dart; and
this blindness continued thenceforth during the whole of his after
life. The following is the account which he himself, as I have heard,
gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic warrior, with a huge beard,
which shaded all his shield, stood over against him; but the ghostly
semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his side. Such, as I
understand, was the tale which Epizelus told."
- Herodotus on the Battle of Marathon

>>1460346
>>1460356
Thanks for the historical refrences, I'll nave to see if I can find them.

>>1460355
Yeah, I can't see people back then caring about PTSD when they just defeated another king.

>>1460367
Thanks, I always thought that death was the leading cause of PTSD which is why I made this thread.

>>1460369
Interesting, I didn't think PTSD would date that far back.

>>1460387
Why wouldn't it date that far back? Just because it wasn't well understood doesn't mean it didn't exist. There's still much mental health professionals don't know about psychological trauma and its response and there's still quite a few members of the public who refuse to acknowledge anything of the sort exists.

Due to the nature of 20th Century warfare post-trauma response e.g. conscripted armies of millions of men, almost unlimited amounts of ordinance used etc PTSD from combat became more prevalent. It also led to a greater desire to understand it. After all, if a certain percentage of your men were going to be casualties without any physical wounds or disease, wouldn't you try to screen and/or prevent it?

This is an awesome thread! /his/ demands MOAR!