This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bourke, J Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Effeminacy, Ethnicity and the End of Trauma: The Sufferings of 'Shell-shocked' Men in Great Britain and Ireland, 1914-39

Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

Enforced passivity in the midst of life-threatening danger caused many men in wartime to suffer psychological collapse. This article examines some aspects of this experience including the ways in which men who were repelled by combat violence were regarded as 'abnormal' and needed to be 'cured' of this repulsion and made to embrace their aggressive urges. During the first world war, certain types of men were regarded by military and medical personnel as more susceptible to this weakness. One crucial indicator was ethnicity. For instance, despite their reputation for being a 'martial race', Irishmen were said to be predisposed to insanity. This article, therefore, examines the ways in which this prejudice developed, and its implications for Irish sufferers of 'shell-shock' during and after the war.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. McCarthy Ethnicity, Migration and the Lunatic Asylum in Early Twentieth-Century Auckland, New Zealand Soc Hist Med, April 1, 2008; 21(1): 47 - 65. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]