Is there any mention in Pre-1900 History of what we called PTSD

>>2954931
probably the most well-sourced versions of PTSD from before 1900 are soldiers accounts during the American Civil War, where veterans did "lose their minds" during when recalling battles after the fact, especially long drawn out sieges like Petersburg where crossfire and danger was a constant threat for months or even years at a time that wore down a soldier's mental state.

here's a good article that's worth the read:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ptsd-civil-wars-hidden-legacy-180953652/

but as for how it was dealt with, most families and communities understood that combat did lead to mental fatigue, especially for soldiers who were physically wounded in battle. It was rare for a soldier who just came back from a living hell to be told to just "man up and deal with it" by his community and peers, there was sympathy given out for the people who risked everything and came back.

as for care taken for them, that was mainly done by the families of those who fought along with churches and charities who were willing to take people in and give them as quiet and peaceful a life as possible, at least avoiding them from having to face war or physical hardship again.

>>2954931
PTSD was mainly solved with alcohol for most of human history.

But yes, there are cases of PTSD or what sounds like PTSD going back as far as ancient Greece. The problem is psychology wasn't a thing that far back so you can't really look at a contemporary written psychoanalysis. You instead have to look for the symptoms.

I do think that it became a lot more prevalent in the 20th century do to the changes in the nature of warfare.

>>2954931
>feeling bad for an enemy that's trying to kill you and rape your wife and enslave your children
yea bro they didn't fuck around in the old days, compassion for the enemy was an extremely rare occurrence

>>2955036
>solved

covered with, you mean

I'm not sure if This Republic of Suffering by Faust counts for what you're looking for but it talks about PTSD from the U.S. Civil War.

They probably drank. A lot. But also since the culture was more pro-slaying your enemies, it probably removed the psychological stigma. Also there's the brains ability to rationalize murdering another human being in close combat due to them being an immediate threat to you, whereas blowing them up with a drone or shooting them from 50 yards away tends to cause inner conflict. Also fighting in the Ancient and Medieval world is short intense bursts rarely occuring in a soldier's life, versus modern era where the threat of explosions and ambush is nigh imminent for weeks on end.

The earliest case of likely documented PTSD was given in Herodotus, where a Greek hoplite at the Battle of Marathon saw a huge warrior with a beard and helmet appearing to attack him. Rendered him blind, and interestingly the Greeks treated him like any other typical wounded veteran, indicating this may not have been uncommon.

There's also Falstaff of Shakespeare, where his wife lists ailments that besiege him, all curiously similar to what many veterans report

I know Lindybeige isn't loved around /his/ but I feel he covers this topic pretty well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNyU1TQUXg

>tfw you'll never be a knight with post-war ptsd and cry at the noises of metal clanks coming from the nearby blacksmith and remind you of battlefield

>>2955512

Such a Knight would not stay a Knight for long.

If there's one thing feudalism is not, it's tolerant.

PTSD became more prevalent after the industrial revolution. So it really wasn't relevant until the American Civil War, which was the first ""industrial"" war

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There's a very good paper on signs of combat trauma in Western mythology by a guy called Thomas Passarella entitled "Heroes to Horrors".

It's often speculated that the reason why PTSD is so much more common since the advent of modern warfare is that a soldier constantly exists in a state of vulnerability, as opposed to the ancient and medieval worlds where pitched battles and sieges were quite rare and you were more able to defend yourself against an attack when they did happen.

Passarelli notes that this lines up pretty well with the circumstances in which ancient heroes are depicted as suffering from excess grief or trauma. For example, in Irish myths, every time Cú Chulainn initiates his "warp spasm", it's when the rules of war are somehow violated and he's set upon when he considered himself safe.

This is most prominent when the champions of Medbh challenge him to a series of duels, and each breaks the rules of engagement more flagrantly the last. By the end of it, Cú Chulainn collapses to his knees and has what seems to be the ancient equivalent of a mental breakdown. He starts to weep, lamenting that he can't go on, and that he feels the whole world is against him.

It's fascinating stuff, I definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in this sort of thing. You can find it for free online.

>>2955383
That is a more appropriate word, yes.

>>2956287
http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1394&context=srhonors_theses

>>2954931
Of course. Achilles' breakdown at the gates of Troy would be the most famous.

>Was there any rehabilitating techniques
Yeah, war was ritualized and religiously contextualized in order for people to leave fighting at the battlefield and go home purified of the experience. So often people had to take part in a religious ritual before going off to war, and again after returning. The shape and form depended on whether they returned victorious or not, etc. Triumphs were again probably the most famous example.

>>2955600
A landed knight who couldn't fight anymore would just be a landowner. Most knights either served a lord, or themselves held land. If the knight served a lord, he'd probably just be brought into the household as a retainer, if he held land, he'd just dwell therein. If he had any nobility, he could probably find accommodation with family. If he was a knight, unlanded, with no connections and no family who was rendered unable to fight by mental illness would probably sell his armour/equipment and join up with the church.

>>2954931
Lindy has a surprisingly good video on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNyU1TQUXg

>>2956915
Knights are so incredibly interesting
I enjoy reading their accounts considering their mortality and afterlife, how they dwell on the hypocrisy of their actions in conjunction with their beliefs, and their experiences dwelling on wars

>>2954931
>Was there any remedy for a Samurai who had constant nightmares of the men he killed in battle?

Yes, it's called "Literally practicing killing people from when you were a young boy"

Samurai children killed their first men before they hit puberty by practicing on condemned criminals.

>>2955476
>>2956925
No sir, I don't like it.

>>2954931
Not very knowledgeable on the subject but I reckon these guys saw what we would deem as extreme violence from a rather young age, and also were with their men during war time for long periods as opposed to being shipped out somewhere, never really seeing too much death and destruction, and then all the sudden seeing your friend, who was there two seconds ago, get their face blown off by a shell or something

>>2954931

PTSD didn't really exist in the pre-modern world

Combat PTSD requires the victim be in a combat status for weeks on end which didn't occur until the 20th century

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>>2954931

I think there was a similar discussion here a while ago where someone linked an article that told about ancient sources and that in medival times knights woke up screaming after very intense and brutal battles but I have no source

>>2954931
Herodotus writes about a hoplite who suffered instantaneous blindness from having a huge persian coming at him during a battle. That's the earliest documentation of maybe-PTSD I can think of.

>>2959481

>>2955467 beat me to it.

>>2959481

Well, you gotta think, it's more likely that this guy just froze up in fear and after the battle he (or his friends) made up a story about blindness in order to avoid having anyone call him a coward.

>>2954931
There was no need to call it PTSD because medicalization of these things is very new.

>>2960663
Hysterical blindness is a real symptom of PTSD though