вЂWorld War One: A Chronological NarrativeвЂ™ by Philip Warner describes many ways in which women threw themselves into professions that by nature put them at risk. The assumption that shell shock and hysteria were different was also naГЇve since women were in fact facing many of the same вЂshocksвЂ™ as the men. The name stuck, largely because sufferers preferred it, a physical condition seeming to them both more honourable and easier to heal. Many men suffering from shell shock had not been on the front, and had never been near a shell, so it was wrong to imply that only people on the front were susceptible. However, as Myers became more familiar with the condition he realised that it was actually a psychological affliction, and came to regret coining such an unsuitable and medically imprecise name for it. The noise of the blast was also considered to be a contributing factor. This must be a physical wound, with the nervous injuries being the result of the вЂwind of a bullet (or shell)вЂ™. It fit what were at first assumed to be the cause of the condition. According to вЂBroken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain 1914-30вЂ™, Sir Charles Myers, a consultant psychologist with the British Expeditionary Force from 1915, first used the term вЂshell shockвЂ™ in an official capacity. Two things were wrong with this assumption first, those making it misunderstood the condition of shell shock. Image of a solider suffering from Shellshock in the Trenches - Tank Museum Exhibition

No, their condition must be different from that of the soldiers. The women werenвЂ™t facing this kind of trauma, though. Never before had man been pitted against technology in such a way, and the modern weapons might shake anyone up. The best soldiers might not usually be affected by the pressures of war, but this was hardly a traditional war. However, the men had reason to be shaken. It didnвЂ™t take long, of course, for the Royal Army Medical Corps to start taking the condition seriously as more and more men exhibited symptoms of emotional distress. A true military man would never react in such a way anyone who did was patently unfit for the life of a soldier, and must be naturally unstable. The men who suffered from it were disgraced, and in some cases prosecuted or even executed for violent outbursts, dereliction of duty or desertion. Initially, the whole condition of shell shock was in fact dismissed as a form of hysteria. Soldiers were considered to be brave and manly, especially in the early years of the war when all the troops were volunteered they didnвЂ™t get hystericalвЂ¦ at least, not without due cause. That being the case, a вЂhystericalвЂ™ condition couldnвЂ™t be compared (let alone classified) with shell shock. Worse, it was sometimes defined as being due to вЂњsympathetic connection between the brain and the uterusвЂќ. вЂBroken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain 1914-30вЂ™ by Fiona Reid explains that вЂhysteriaвЂ™ was considered to be largely a female condition, with the 1910 volume of Encyclopedia Britannica noting that it was primarily associated with women, Jews and Slavs. Firstly, everyone knew that woman was the weaker sex, and far more susceptible to stress. The failure to recognise the signs of shell shock in women, and the reluctance of those in authority to treat those symptoms in the same way as they would in a soldier returning from combat, was a sign of the times. Her doctor had tried to get her out of London and away from her family, being aware of the great stress she was under, but his concern came too late and she suffered a nervous breakdown, culminating in the murder. At her trial, friends testified that sheвЂ™d been kindly and happy before the air raids on London started, while her sister described how the trauma of these attacks had caused her to shake and have delusions. The Atlantic magazine recently carried a story on вЂWorld War OneвЂ™s Forgotten Female Shell Shock VictimsвЂ™, and outlined the infamous case of Elizabeth Huntley, a British woman who decapitated her own daughter in late 1917.

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