Depleted Nerves

Abstract

This essay explores the impact of shell-shock on individual soldiers, the collective understanding of wartime trauma during and after the First World War, and the discourse of mental health in the medical field and public sphere. Additionally, it aims to identify when the discourse of psychological trauma began to shift toward more contemporary understandings of mental health. In order to draw out the voices of Canadian soldiers who were not able to openly discuss their emotions due to the stigmatisation surrounding shell-shock, this study will utilise various sources such as soldier diaries, battalion orders, and the Library and Archives of Canada database. Moreover, this essay aims to uncover how shell-shock was suppressed by wartime officials and those with the power to appropriately aid soldiers inflicted with shell-shock. In order to search for the reticence and silence of shell-shock, I examine the censorship of soldiers' experiences on the homefront, the secrecy surrounding war-related trauma in the general public, and the hyper-masculinized attitudes within battalions that viewed shell-shock symptoms as a manifestation of mental weakness. While I focus primarily on Canadian soldiers during World War I within this essay, it is acknowledged that all soldiers, hospital staff, and those affected by the war were susceptible to various forms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.