What was the treatment for shellshock

Hurst made the only film in existence about how shell shock victims were treated in Britain. These rare recordings give an insight into Hurst's dramatic techniques.

One of the films follows Private Percy Meek who was driven almost mad during a massive bombardment of the Western Front. When he first came under Hurst's care, he'd regressed into a babylike state and was sitting in a wheelchair. Gradually Meek recovered the physical functions he'd lost, and returned to normality under Hurst's tutelage. Another of Hurst's techniques was to take the men to the peace and quiet of the rolling Devon countryside. It was thought to be a place where the men could get over their hysteria through labouring on the land.

The men toiled on the farm, and were encouraged to use their creative energies. He also directed a reconstruction of the battlefields of Flanders on Dartmoor to help the men relive their experiences.

Back indoors, the men were encouraged to write and to produce a magazine with a gossip column called Ward Whispers.

Arthur Hurst's son Christopher recalls his father's treatments, "The main work was occupational therapy. These soldiers, who had been shell shocked, had lost vital faculties, like walking, speaking and so on, were given jobs to do here. My father He cured these cases by means of persuasion and hypnotism. Hurst's pioneering methods were both humane and sympathetic. It was a miracle that literally saved the lives of dozens of shattered men. On bbc. Military authorities often saw its symptoms as expressions of cowardice or lack of moral character.

Its true cause, prolonged exposure to the stress of combat, would not be fully understood or effectively treated during the war. Doctors diagnosed almost 10, Canadians with shellshock during the war. Conservative estimates put the number of soldiers in the British and Imperial armies treated for shell shock at over 80, but many, many more suffered than were treated.

But there were conflicts over both the causes and treatment of shell shock. The mind sciences have always struggled to work out whether mental disorders are caused by biological or psychosocial factors. And, over history, the pendulum has swung one way and then the other.

Initially, some argued the condition was the direct result of the percussive effects of the newly-developed and considerably more powerful high explosives, which had functionally damaged the nervous system of the sufferer.

Still others, such as the psychologist Charles Myers and the psychiatrist W. Rivers , would claim it was the result of mental trauma or prolonged stress. Each of these positions had a direct impact on the way troops were treated. And just as there were multiple explanations for the cause of shell shock, there were divergent methods of treating it.

This was a view shared by many and it made the burden of guilt for Shellshock victims even worse. The symptoms displayed under the term 'Shellshock' were extraordinarily numerous and different.

Among regular soldiers hysteria - paralysis, blindness, deafness, contracture of limbs, mutism and limping were the most common, while officers mainly experienced nightmares, insomnia, heart palpitations, dizziness, depression and disorientation.

Mutism and speech disorders were the most common form of war neurosis. They were thought to be symptoms of a soldiers repressed aggression towards his superior officers. The rate of war neurosis, however, was four times higher among officers then among the regular soldiers.

Their positions required them to continually repress their emotions in order to set an example for their men. The most severe cases of Shellshock occurred in officers who had made a name for themselves as daredevils.

These man were ashamed by their overwhelming fear and performed daredevil acts to show their men that they were not afraid. The treatments of Shellshock were many and varied. Disciplinary treatment was the most common at the time. The doctors involved with this form of treatment had harsh moral views of hysteria and stressed quick cures as the goal of wartime psychiatry was to keep men fighting.