Psychological Wounds: The Mind's Casualties

Physical wounds, however terrible, were visible and comprehensible. Psychological trauma—"shell shock" in contemporary terminology—remained mysterious and stigmatized. Hundreds of thousands suffered what we now recognize as PTSD, but medical understanding lagged far behind need.

Symptoms varied dramatically. Some men shook uncontrollably, others sat mute for months. Paralysis without physical cause was common. Night terrors made sleep impossible. Sudden noises triggered panic attacks. Men who had shown extraordinary courage in battle cowered at backfiring automobiles. The mind's breaking proved as real as the body's, but harder to accept in a culture valuing stoicism.

Dr. Gustave Roussy, pioneering trauma treatment, described typical cases: "Lieutenant M., decorated for bravery, cannot stop trembling. He has not slept properly in two years, waking screaming from nightmares. Sergeant D. becomes mute when it rains, reliving gas attacks. Private L. believes he is still in trenches, diving under tables at sudden sounds. These are not cowards but men whose minds have absorbed more horror than human psyche can process."

Treatment remained primitive. Rest, isolation, and occupational therapy helped some. Hypnosis showed promise. Electrical shock therapy, based on mistaken theories about nervous system damage, tortured more than healed. Many doctors, believing psychological symptoms indicated malingering, prescribed harsh discipline. Suicide rates among veterans soared as men found peace only in death.

Families struggled with transformed men. Wives described husbands who returned as strangers—violent, withdrawn, or absent even when present. Children feared fathers who woke screaming or hit without provocation. Divorce rates tripled as marriages collapsed under trauma's weight. Marie Delacroix, whose husband returned psychologically destroyed, wrote: "The Germans killed him at Verdun. That his body came home is cruel joke. I mourn the man I married while caring for hostile stranger wearing his face."