WW1 Secret Shame: Shell Shock
Dan Snow
(2018)
BBC TV DOCUMENTARY: 1 hr duration.
Synopsis
This TV documentary, made for BBC2, features the Historian Dan Snow who investigates a century of war trauma from WW1 shell shock to modern PTSD. It is a frank and heart breaking account of the devastating impact of war on the mental health of our soldiers.
The programme begins with WW1 and spends some time explaining what was then inexplicable symptoms seen in soldiers, which came to be labelled Shell Shock, and the initial responses by millitary and medical professionals. Snow adeptly tells of those that did their best to help these men and those that dehumanised them by focusing only on financial and military targets. His account follows the course of these responses and how they changed over time to eventually encompass all of the time-limited compassion, head scratching, curiousity, exploitation, irritation, judgement, shaming, ignoring and controlling behaviours that people with mental health conditions (and I am particularly speaking of PTSD here) still have to endure from authority, the public and medical professionals.
Snow shows how, the WW1 soldiers, despite having already shown bravery and loyalty to comrades and country, were shamed and accused of melingering when showing signs of trauma. This was primarily done to try and stem the 'spread' of the condition and to keep the soldiers in battle.
The show goes on to depict other wars including WW2, the Falklands and the Middle East in order to map the history of PTSD (that was not recognised until 1980). Snow shares frank and moving conversations with veterans, relatives and professionals and delves into previously unseen archives to reveal the difficult history of how Britain has reacted to the psychological consequences of warfare.
I learnt a lot by watching his documentary. The most interesting part of the documentaty for me was learning how the presentation of combat stress has changed over the past century. (i.e. shell shock patients did not present with flashbacks) and hearing different views as to why this could be so.
Snow poses an interesting question: Why was nothing learnt by the experiences of the shell shocked soldiers in WW1? Shockingly, it seems that lessons learnt from previous conflicts have been all too quickly forgotten. In Britain, the Army only recognised PTSD when it was forced to do so by the impact of the Falklands war. I was shocked by a quote in the programme: Stress? We call it Lack of moral fibre.
Of course, psychiatric illness is still stigmatised but PTSD, the name, is an explanation in itself and by recognising and engaging with it, understanding can follow. He asks military psychiatrists and experts why we're still struggling to help the psychiatric casualties of war - especially as we now know that battle trauma leads to alcoholism, broken families, violence and suicide on a shocking scale in the UK.
I wholeheartedly recommend this programme, which is currently available to view for free in UK.
Who do you think this resource would be most useful for? **People with PTSD
**Friends and Families
**Clinicians
**Veterans
**Broad appeal
written by an expert-by-experience