• HOME
• THE LANGUAGE OF MADNESS
• THE ASYLUM
• • Asylum Design
  • Patient Buildings
• SOCIETY
• • Urban & Rural Life
  • Class & Gender
  • The Hysterical Female
  • The Evils of "Self-Abuse"
  • Family
  • Visitors
• LEGISLATION
• • Legislative Influence
  • Origins of Legislation and the Criminality of Insanity
  • Teenaged Years: Marked Custody Transition
  • Turn of the Century: Voluntary Admissions
  • Updated Act: The Mental Hospital Act
• SUPERINTENDANTS
• STAFF
• • Working at the LAI
  • Hiring Practices
  • Rules for Employees
  • Employee Roles in Moral Therapy
  • Doctors at LAI
  • Doctor Connections to UWO
  • Training School for Nurses
  • Attendants
  • General Staff
• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES
• • Introduction
  • Patient Art
  • Patient Letters
  • Their Voice
• MEDICAL TREATMENTS
• • Medical Treatment Introduction
  • Use of Restraints
  • Drug and Alcohol
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Female Surgeries
  • Neurosyphilis
  • Shock Therapy
  • Lobotomies
• MORAL THERAPY
• • Moral Therapy Introduction
  • Labour
  • Amusements
  • Diet
  • Religion
• THE WORLD WARS
• • Before the First World War
  • During the First World War
  • After the First World War
  • The First World War and the LAI
  • First World War Veterans at the LAI
  • The Second World War
• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

During the First World War

Military authorities often failed to acknowledge shell shock as an actual affliction. It was not until February 1915 that the term was even accepted by the British military's psychiatric community. Authorities hesitated to recognize shell shock as an injury, because soldiers suffering its effects often appeared physically unharmed.

Symptoms varied from soldier to soldier, but could include the more severe disorders like temporary loss of sight or speech and involuntary spasms or paralysis in limbs. These more severe indicators were classified as symptoms of hysteria, and most commonly affected the ordinary soldiers.

Other more mild symptoms such as headache, exhaustion, stress, and irritation were classified as neursasthenia and tended to affect officers.

The distinction between hysteria and neurasthenia reflected the commonly held belief that mental health issues were an affliction of the lower classes, or a result of weak moral character. The two classifications also meant very different treatment options to cure the afflicted individual.