IsisCB Explore

Book ID: CBB199752350

Aero-Neurosis: Pilots of the First World War and the Psychological Legacies of Combat (2019)

Mark C. Wilkins (Author)

Pen and Sword Books
Publication date: 2019
Language: English

ISBN: 9781526723123

Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 256

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

Google Books

War neuroses World War I Medicine and the military; medicine in war Fighter plane combat Psychiatry Neuroses; neurotic disorders 20th century, early

The young men who flew and fought during the First World War had no idea what was awaiting them. The rise of science and nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to a head in 1914. The "technology shock" that coalesced at the Western Front was not envisaged by any of the leadership. These men did the best they could and gave their full measure but it wasn't enough. Each suffered from their experiences, some better than others. Each knew it was a defining moment in their lives never to be repeated. And many felt that the dynamic context of aerial combat was something that, after the war, they still longed for, despite the attendant horrors. The medical and psychiatric profession evolved symbiotically with the war. Like the patients they were charged with treating, doctors were unprepared for what awaited them. Doctors argued over best practice for treatment. Of course, the military wanted these men to return to duty as quickly as possible; with mounting casualties, each country needed every man. Aviation psychiatry arose as a new subset of the field, attempting to treat psychological symptoms previously unseen in combatants. The unique conditions of combat flying produced a whole new type of neurosis. Terms such as Aero-neurosis were coined to provide the necessary label yet, like shell shock, they were inadequate when it came to describing the full and complete shock to the psyche. We are fortunate that many of these fliers chose to write. They kept diaries and letters about their experiences after the war and they are, of course, an invaluable record. But perhaps more importantly, they were also a means for many of them to heal.

...More

Reviewed By

Review Steve Agoratus (2020) Review of "Aero-Neurosis: Pilots of the First World War and the Psychological Legacies of Combat". Air Power History (pp. 60-61). unapi

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB199752350

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Donato Bragatto; Adello Vanni; (2022)
Le nevrosi di guerra, l’anafilassi psichica e la sedizione criminaloide a Villa del Seminario (1916-1917) (/p/isis/citation/CBB102908703/)

Book Rebecca Ayako Bennette; (2020)
Diagnosing Dissent: Hysterics, Deserters, and Conscientious Objectors in Germany During World War One (/p/isis/citation/CBB592428650/)

Article AD (Sandy) Macleod; (2018)
Abrupt treatments of hysteria during World War I, 1914–18 (/p/isis/citation/CBB464413760/)

Article Bogousslavsky, Julien; Tatu, Laurent; (2013)
French Neuropsychiatry in the Great War: Between Moral Support and Electricity (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320358/)

Chapter Filiberto Agostini; (2020)
Ernesto Belmondo e l'ospedale psichiatrico di Padova durante la Grande Guerra. Esordio di una ricerca (/p/isis/citation/CBB172782240/)

Chapter Matteo Borri; (2020)
La psichiatria europea e il fronte (/p/isis/citation/CBB499921632/)

Article Roberts-Pedersen, Elizabeth; (2012)
A Weak Spot in the Personality? Conceptualising “War Neurosis” in British Medical Literature of the Second World War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001212387/)

Book Mark Osborne Humphries; (2018)
A Weary Road: Shell Shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918 (/p/isis/citation/CBB451813888/)

Book Tracey Loughran; (2017)
Shell-Shock and Medical Culture in First World War Britain (/p/isis/citation/CBB472571862/)

Article Joanna Park; Louise Neilson; Andreas K. Demetriades; (2022)
Hysteria, head injuries and heredity: ‘Shell-shocked’ soldiers of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, Edinburgh (1914–24) (/p/isis/citation/CBB069255429/)

Article Meyer, Jessica; (2009)
Separating the Men from the Boys: Masculinity and Maturity in Understandings of Shell Shock in Britain (/p/isis/citation/CBB001030551/)

Book Michael Robinson; (2020)
Shell-shocked British Army veterans in Ireland, 1918-39: A difficult homecoming (/p/isis/citation/CBB862476164/)

Article Lestrade, Cécile; Gayral, Louis-François; (2000)
Les psychoses de guerre pendant le conflit 1914-1918: L'apport du Dr Paul Voivenel: le concept de “peur morbide acquise” (/p/isis/citation/CBB000111980/)

Article Linden, Stefanie Caroline; Jones, Edgar; (2014)
“Shell Shock” Revisited: An Examination of the Case Records of the National Hospital in London (/p/isis/citation/CBB001422169/)

Article Jones, Edgar; (2010)
Shell Shock at Maghull and the Maudsley: Models of Psychological Medicine in the UK (/p/isis/citation/CBB001034278/)

Article Dietze, Gabriele; (2014)
“Simulanten des Irrsinns auf dem Vortragspult”: Dada, Krieg und Psychiatrie, eine Aktive Traumadynamik (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551230/)

Book Tyquin, Michael; (2006)
Madness and the Military: Australia's Experience of the Great War (/p/isis/citation/CBB000930993/)

Article Julie M. Powell; (2016)
Shock Troupe: Medical Film and the Performance of ‘Shell Shock’ for the British Nation at War: (/p/isis/citation/CBB616523097/)

Article Stefanie Caroline Linden; (2021)
When war came home: air-raid shock in World War I (/p/isis/citation/CBB531471852/)

Book Marco Romano; (2020)
Soldati e neuropsichiatria nell'Italia della Grande Guerra: controllo militare e pratiche assistenziali a confronto (1915-1918) (/p/isis/citation/CBB805825091/)