Houghton Frances
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
Soc Hist Med. 2024 Jun 30;37(4):789-812. doi: 10.1093/shm/hkae037. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Between 1943 and 1945, Britain's Royal Naval Medical Service dispatched urgent missions to investigate physiological and psychological effects suffered by British sailors who were deployed in tropical climates. This article draws on the resulting, previously neglected, medical articles and medical research reports to examine understandings of 'tropical neurosis' in the wartime fleet. Exploring how tropical neurosis was encountered, framed and explained by senior naval medical professionals, this article investigates the condition's portrayal as a serious health and military risk during the Second World War. This research analyses hitherto unexplored intersections of constructions of race, gender and environment in British naval medical conclusions and recommendations, delivering significant new understandings of the insidious operation of medical racism in Britain's wartime armed forces. It also establishes, for the first time, how this ambiguous illness was construed as a threat to Britain's naval war effort, and even the very future of Empire, by the Navy's medical branch.
1943年至1945年间，英国皇家海军医疗队派遣紧急任务，调查部署在热带气候地区的英国水兵所遭受的生理和心理影响。本文借鉴了由此产生的、此前被忽视的医学文章和医学研究报告，以审视战时舰队中对“热带神经症”的理解。通过探究高级海军医疗专业人员如何遇到、界定和解释热带神经症，本文考察了这种病症在第二次世界大战期间被描绘为严重健康和军事风险的情况。这项研究分析了英国海军医疗结论和建议中迄今未被探索的种族、性别和环境建构的交叉点，对英国战时武装部队中医疗种族主义的潜在运作有了重要的新认识。它还首次确定了海军医疗部门如何将这种模糊不清的疾病视为对英国海战努力乃至帝国未来的威胁。
