From the outset of World War I, French doctors faced an apparent
epidemic of puzzling neurological and psychiatric illnesses among
soldiers. As they attempted to understand the causes of these
illnesses, doctors organized specialized centers near the front,
where they submitted soldiers to swift, humiliating treatments and
then returned them to duty. At home, they interned the scores of
civilians who succumbed to the war's strains in decrepit asylums or
left them to fend for themselves. In Treating the Trauma of the
Great War, Gregory M. Thomas explores the psychological effects of
the war on French citizens, showing how doctors' understanding of
mental illness produced deep, tangible effects in the lives of the
men and women who suffered.
Doctors vigorously debated the war's role in the genesis of the
neuropsychiatric disturbances observed in soldiers and civilians,
but most psychiatrists ultimately concluded that mental illnesses
appeared primarily in individuals predisposed to disease.
Consequently, doctors granted their patients few favors when making
decisions about diagnostic labels, treatment regimes, and pension
allocations, leaving many to endure illnesses without adequate care
or sufficient financial support. In their quest to understand the
psychological impact of war, Thomas argues, doctors focused more on
demonstrating the capabilities of their medical specialties and
serving a state at war than on treating patients. Those aims
significantly affected doctors' scientific conclusions, their
medical and legal decisions, and their treatment practices. When
the war ended, psychiatric reformers used the trauma of war to
their advantage, promoting the perception of France as a
traumatized nation in need of new psychiatric institutions that
could accommodate a large and growing pool of psychologically
wounded citizens.
Thomas draws on the vast medical literature produced during and
after the war, including veterans' journals, parliamentary debates,
newspaper articles, and medical administrative reports, infusing
his narrative with a vivid human element. Though psychiatrists
ultimately failed to raise the status of their specialty, Thomas
reveals how the war helped precipitate lasting changes in
psychiatric practice.
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