Interesting to see the shell shock fake. Some things never change... nowadays AI-generated soldiers would have six fingers and the lettering would be all jumbled up.
I just finished Bessel van der Kolk's excellent book about trauma 'The Body Keeps the Score'. He notes that, while the term 'shell shock' was invented by the British army as a diagnosis that would lead to the sufferer getting treatment and a pension (the alternative diagnosis of 'neurasthenia' got them neither), as the number of cases began to pile up in WW1 there was a concerted effort to downplay and deny the very existence of the syndrome:
'As the war wore on, shell shock increasingly compromised the efficiency of the fighting forces. Caught between taking the suffering of their soldiers seriously and pursuing victory over the Germans, the British General Staff issued General Routine Order Number 2384 in June of 1917, which stated, 'In no circumstances whatever will the expression "shell shock" be used verbally or be recorded in any regimental or other casualty report, or any hospital or other medical document.' All soldiers were to be given a single diagnosis of 'NYDN' (Not Yet Diagnosed, Nervous). [...] In 1922 the British government issued the Southborough Report, whose goal was to prevent the diagnosis of shell shock in any future wars and to undermine any more claims for compensation. It suggested the elimination of shell shock from all official nomenclature and insisted that these cases should no more be classified 'as a battle casualty than sickness or disease is so regarded.' The official view was that well-trained troops, properly led, would not suffer from shell shock and that the servicemen who had succumbed to the disorder were undisciplined and unwilling soldiers. While the political storm about the legitimacy of shell shock continued to rage for several more years, reports on how to best treat these cases disappeared from the scientific literature.' (pp222-223)
So maybe that's why the Pathe propaganda uses the terms 'war neurosis' and refers to 'hysteria' in various forms rather than use the term 'shell shock'. George Carlin had a routine lamenting the change from visceral terms, understandable to the layman, to more clinical, bloodless descriptions that carry none of the deeper connotations and can only be understood by technical specialists - and the insurance industry, I presume. He picks up on the transition from 'shell shock' to 'PTSD'. It seems clear why that happened...
on September 27, 2026, 8:15 am