A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the
Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard
 Book Description
A War of Nerves is a history of military psychiatry in the 20th century — an
authoritative, accessible account drawing on a vast range of diaries, interviews, medical
papers, and official records, from doctors as well as ordinary soldiers. It reaches back
to the moment when the technologies of modern warfare and the disciplines of psychology
and medicine first confronted each other on the Western Front, and traces their uneasy
relationship through the eras of shell-shock, combat fatigue, and post-traumatic stress
disorder.
At once absorbing historical narrative and
intellectual detective story, A War of Nerves weaves together the literary, medical, and
military lore to give us a fascinating history of war neuroses and their treatment, from
the World Wars through Vietnam and up to the Gulf War. In so doing, it answers recurring
questions about the effects of war. Why do some men crack and others not? Are the limits of resistance determined by character, heredity, upbringing,
ideology, or simple biochemistry?
Military psychiatry has long been shrouded in misconception, and haunted
by the competing demands of battle and of recovery. Now, this definitive history
illuminates the bumpy efforts to understand the ravages of war on the human mind, and
points towards the true lessons to be learned from treating the aftermath of war.
Hardcover: 448 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.56 x 9.52
x 6.46 Publisher: Harvard Univ Press; April 2001
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