In these days of commemoration of the centenary of the end of the First World War, we must remember that it was on the occasion of this atrocious conflict that we described for the first time and recognized the syndrome of post-stress stress. traumatic.
Post-traumatic stress syndrome, the “PTSD” of the Anglo-Saxons, is now widely recognized, as the attacks of November 15 in France bear witness to this. But that has not always been the case. It was on the occasion of the First World War and the “massive nature of the horror of this conflict” that this entity was recognized and legitimized. This is what a very interesting article by The Conversation.
The wind of the ball
Before this conflict, the doctors of the Napoleonic wars had described psychological disorders linked to the “cannonball wind”. At the beginning of this first world war, the doctors still spoke of “obusite” or “battle hypnosis” on the French side and of “Shell Shock” on the British side, which was not very far.
But, initially, it was then above all a question of tracking down the simulators in order to send them back to the front. We were still looking for the sign that was going to unmask the “slackers”, as the Lasègue sign was then used to separate men who suffered from sciatica from false sciatica.
But very quickly, the massive nature of these disorders led to their recognition on both sides of the front line under the title of “war neurosis”. It should be noted that, often, the patients being also seriously injured, the disorder sometimes passed into the background and was not treated.
Long-lasting troubles
The Armistice of 1918, if it stopped the fighting, did not put an end to the suffering of the sick. This suffering could even last throughout the life of these traumatized men, with phases of reactivation of the troubles on the occasion of successive conflicts.
The big business, which lasts until today, that of what is called war psychiatry, was then to find treatments capable of relieving the sick. Hypnosis, narco-analysis, sedation, different types of psychotherapy…, but also “faradisation”, a technique then used in hysteria, which shows all the same that the doctors were not completely sure of the psychic process at the time. origin of the troubles.
One hundred years later, the conflicts still exist, even if the horror is not so massive, it is still there and, both soldiers and civilians, still suffer from it, despite the debriefing techniques and the follow-ups that are put in place. square. There is still room for therapeutic progress and, perhaps, better prevention.
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