Reid Fiona, Van Everbroeck Christine
a Humanities and Social Sciences , University of South Wales , Pontypridd , UK.
Med Confl Surviv. 2014 Oct-Dec;30(4):252-75. doi: 10.1080/13623699.2014.963970. Epub 2014 Dec 2.
During the First World War combatants of all armies were prey to nervous disorders or psychological breakdown. These war neuroses were a response to the highly-industrialised nature of the warfare as well as to the fatigue engendered over four years of intense conflict. Yet while fear and mental breakdown were universal, national responses varied. A comparison of British and Belgian shell shock indicates that men suffered in very similar ways but that symptoms met with rather different responses: in Britain treatment and diagnostic regimes stressed the importance of class difference and shell shock was often linked to cowardice. These issues were not of overriding importance in the Belgian army. In the longer term shell shock became, and remained, a topic of political and social concern in Britain whereas in Belgium men suffering from kloppe (extreme fear) tended to be forgotten and the topic has not excited much popular interest or scholarly attention. Yet despite these differences one overarching theme remains clear, namely that despite the extensive experience of war neuroses during and after the First World War, there still remains a fierce stigma about the mental wounds of war.
第一次世界大战期间，各国军队的参战人员都饱受神经紊乱或精神崩溃之苦。这些战争神经症是对战争高度工业化性质以及四年激烈冲突所产生的疲劳的一种反应。然而，尽管恐惧和精神崩溃很普遍，但各国的应对方式却有所不同。对比英国和比利时对炮弹休克症的处理情况可以发现，士兵们遭受痛苦的方式非常相似，但症状所得到的反应却大不相同：在英国，治疗和诊断机制强调阶级差异的重要性，炮弹休克症常常与怯懦联系在一起。而在比利时军队中，这些问题并非至关重要。从长远来看，炮弹休克症在英国成为并一直是政治和社会关注的话题，而在比利时，患有“克洛佩”（极度恐惧）的人往往被遗忘，这个话题并未引起太多大众兴趣或学术关注。然而，尽管存在这些差异，一个总体主题仍然清晰可见，即尽管在第一次世界大战期间及之后人们对战争神经症有广泛的认识，但战争造成的精神创伤仍然存在着强烈的污名化现象。
