Dang that's a long title. And its a hefty one.
PTSD really only became an official term in the 1980's.
I'm looking mostly at different military generals and their views of their "seasoned" soldiers through history. Anyone from Patton to Julius C-.
When I hear (in 2021), that troops have PTSD and emotional/mental issues following combat, I think "well duh, of course...". But I'm wondering if that sentiment is as prevalent today as it was as, lets say, back in the Punic Wars.
This also wraps in a HUGE question in the history of psychology which is -- "How sympathetic towards emotional/mental disorders has society been since their emergence?"
We can be sympathetic all we want, but the effects of war on the mind play a massive part in how a unit behaves. So how were these effects dealt with and viewed through military history?
If this question seems enormously open ended (there's probably a whole textbook on this question), then I'd love to hear how maybe specific nations or cultures have viewed this issue. Maybe not the entirety of society as a whole.
For anyone answering, I thank you SO much. This has been one of my BIGGEST questions since starting to learn about military history.
If you need me to be more specific, I will gladly try to narrow it down. It's difficult for me to articulate this concept because it is so large, but I would like some guidance on where to start with this subject.
There is always more to say on a subject, but here are a few similar questions that might give you some of the answers you're looking for:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/63ujea/are_there_any_examples_of_ptsd_from_early_wars_or/dfxds3i/ from /u/Iphikrates
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7nmhtj/whats_known_about_ptsd_among_vikings/ds37vb6/?context=3f from /u/textandtrowel
EDIT: More here, as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/faq/militaryhistory#wiki_post_traumatic_stress_disorder
I thought it might be helpful to address this question from a more modern perspective (since this hasn’t really been the focus of previous answers). At the beginning of World War I mental health treatment was primary provided in asylums by psychiatrists as well as informally by clergy and other members of the community. There was a rudimentary understanding of conditions like schizophrenia and depression, while physicians like Freud, Jung, and Adler had begun developing psychoanalysis and talk therapy. Psychologists during this time primarily worked at universities.
The term ‘shellshock’ was introduced during World War I in a Lancet paper by Meyers, and neurological treatment centers were established in the hope that psychiatric casualties could be discharged and returned to military duty. As the high number of casualties in the war began to cause manpower issues, forward psychiatry centers (located near the front lines) were established with the hopes of increasing the percentage of soldiers who could be returned to active duty. A retrospective study by Jones, Thomas, and Ironside (2007) of one treatment center found that about 17% of patients rejoined the front lines. During this time, there was scientific disagreement as to whether shellshock was a physical condition (e.g. brain lesions), a psychological condition, or if it represented soldiers malingering.
In the period spanning the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II one popular believe was that shellshock could be effectively mitigated by high morale and by selecting men with the correct disposition. In the US, psychometric assessments were becoming increasingly popular in part because of the success of the Army Alpha which was a primitive predecessor to the ASVAB (the US military aptitude test). Following the end of World War I, psychologists attempted to develop assessments which could screen out individuals susceptible to shellshock. One of the more successful assessments developed was the Woodworth’s Personal Data Sheet which was essentially an early measure of the Neuroticism personality trait.
Treatment for shellshock did not vary substantially between the two World Wars. As in World War I, forward psychiatric centers remained the main strategy for addressing the condition. Although the debate continued as to whether shellshock was a medical condition, a mental state or a character flaw, the public was gradually becoming more sympathetic to the condition.
Around the conclusion of World War II, the rise of clinical psychology coincided with a greatly expanded mental health system in the US. Wartime encouragement and funding resulted in a tremendous increase in the number PhD programs in clinical psychology whose graduates were frequently hired into the Veteran Affairs' (VA) newly established doctoral trainee program. Following World War II, the VA health system was providing care to 44,000 neuropsychiatric patients. These developments would eventually lead to a much larger population of mental health clinicians treating clients in an out-patient setting using somewhat modern methods.
PTSD officially became a psychiatric diagnosis in 1980, when it was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). This was a reaction to the high number of soldiers returning from the Vietnam War with delayed onset psychiatric conditions as well as a response to lobbying from veteran's groups. Another related diagnosis, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) gained widespread recognition during the Iraq war where it was recognized that many soldiers experienced mild and often hard to detect brain injuries which could result to serious long term psychiatric symptoms.
Sources:
Jones, E., & Wessely, S. (2014). Battle for the mind: World War 1 and the birth of military psychiatry. The Lancet, 384(9955), 1708-1714.
Crocq, M. A., & Crocq, L. (2000). From shell shock and war neurosis to posttraumatic stress disorder: a history of psychotraumatology. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 2(1), 47.
Benjamin Jr, L. T. (2005). A history of clinical psychology as a profession in America (and a glimpse at its future). Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol., 1, 1-30.