Shell shock was
a term used to describe the reaction of soldiers in World War I to the trauma of battle. It has been
described as a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that
produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic, or flight, an inability
to reason, sleep, walk or talk. "Simply put, after even the most obedient
soldier had enough shells rain down on him, without any means of fighting back,
he often lost all self control."[1]
During the War, the concept of shell-shock was
ill-defined. Cases of "shell shock" could be interpreted as either a
physical or psychological injury, or simply as a lack of moral fibre. While the
term 'shell shock' is no longer used in either medical or military discourse,
it has entered into popular imagination and memory, and often identified as the
signature injury of the War.
In World War II and thereafter, diagnosis of
"shell shock" was replaced by that of Combat stress reaction, a similar but not
identical response to the trauma of warfare.
Source: From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
