Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War

We all know what happened to the likes of Sassoon and Graves, those gentlemanly, Oxbridge-educated officers whose "nerves gave out", diagnosed with neurasthenia and treated in a halfway humane, halfway understanding manner mainly because they were upper middle class or upperclass, well-bred and well-educated. Still thought, as was such a rampant thinking then, that the greater sensibility of the noble and refined classes gave leave to stronger nervous and emotional reactions.

This book concentrates however on the poor sods of the other ranks who, denuded of any understanding from those who stayed at home or those officers commanding them from the plushy chairs, first were refused their proper diagnosis of shell-shock, then quickly hidden show more in asylums for the insane, rather than properly treated.

As a result the content is, in hindsight, quite heartbreaking and I found myself gritting my teeth rather often at the class-driven disregard and callousness directed at people who indeed had been largely led to the Big Meatgrinder in France and other parts of Europe like sheep to the slaughterbank, and who, when they did their bit alright and even managed not to end up as a casualty of needless attrition, weren't even properly cared for. And don't say they didn't all know better, what this book really does is show in detail the cruelty and callousness of classdriven medicine with all its prejudices.

A great and interesting read, recommended for everyone interested in shell-shock and the other ranks. show less