Is there evidence of PTSD or similar traumatic scarring in older cultures?

by [deleted]

For instance, during the civil war, revolutionary war, and even further back?

8BallTiger

PTSD questions are popular and have been asked a lot so I'm just going to link the PTSD section of the sub's FAQ

kookingpot

There was a recent article about post-traumatic stress in ancient Mesopotamian warriors, specifically those of the Assyrians (1300-600 BC). Here is a link to the article:

Abdul-Hamid, W. K. and Hacker Hughes, J. G. H. (in press). Nothing new under the sun? Post traumatic stress disorders in Ancient Iraq and Mespopotamia. History of Psychiatry

The basic gist of the paper is that several ancient medical texts describe symptoms similar to what we diagnose as PTSD. One criticism of the article is that much of it is centered on establishing the brutality and trauma that "must have existed" rather than establishing the evidence. It starts off with a lot of circular reasoning. However, they do eventually cite some case studies of texts referring to PTSD-like symptoms. Interestingly, the ancient Mesopotamians refer to these symptoms as the effects of the ghosts of the enemies they killed.

OldWorldGlory

Here are the threads from the FAQ section linked by /u/8BallTiger:

General

Ancient

Medieval

Early Modern and Modern