Description
Book SynopsisMore than 16,000 Canadian soldiers suffered from shell shock during the Great War of 1914 to 1918. Despite significant interest from historians, we still know relatively little about how it was experienced, diagnosed, treated, and managed in the frontline trenches in the Canadian and British forces.
How did soldiers relate to suffering comrades? Did large numbers of shell shock cases affect the outcome of important battles? Was frontline psychiatric treatment as effective as many experts claimed after the war? Were Canadians treated any differently than other Commonwealth soldiers? A Weary Road is the first comprehensive study to address these important questions. Author Mark Osborne Humphries uses research from Canadian, British, and Australian archives, including hundreds of newly available hospital records and patient medical files, to provide a history of war trauma as it was experienced, treated, and managed by ordinary soldiers.
Trade Review"With A Weary Road, Humphries deftly tackles the immensely complicated topic of shell shock: how it was understood and diagnosed, the vivisions within the medical community, how treatment evlved over the course of the war, and how medical and military interests could collide." -- David MacKenzie * Literary Review of Canada, Vol 27, no. 2 *
Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Framing Shell Shock: Nervous Illness before the Great War 2 Purely Shattered Nerves: British and Canadian Approaches to Treatment, 1914–1915 3 Baptism of Fire: The Ypres Salient, 1915 4 The CEF’s Shell Shock Crisis, Spring 1916 5 Treatment of Evacuated Cases, 1915–1916 6 The BEF’s Shell Shock Crisis on the Somme, June–November 1916 7 Managing Shell Shock at the Front, October 1916-June 1917 8 Illusions of Success: The NYDN Centres, June–December 1917 9 Failure and Retrenchment, 1917–1918 Conclusion Appendix A: Special Shell Shock Hospitals and NYDN Centres in Army Areas Appendix B: A Note on First World War Medical Sources Notes Bibliography Index
