TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and politics during the First World War
AU - Brunner, José
PY - 1991/10
Y1 - 1991/10
N2 - This article compares the therapeutic power used by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts serving in the German and Austro‐Hungarian armies during World War I, and the ways in which their therapeutic techniques were related to governmental and military authority. When treating “shell shocked” soldiers, army psychiatrists were guided by nationalist commitment rather than concern for their patients. Whatever theoretical approach they took, they defined their therapeutic task as administrative intervention aimed to increase the docility of soldiers to the state and its military purposes. But violent means of coercion, designed to force neurotic soldiers back into duty, remained inefficient. Drawing from an alternative body of knowledge, army physicians influenced by Freud's writings, or trained in psychoanalysis, applied cathartic methods to treat the Central Powers' soldiers. Their approach was not only more humane, but also proved to be therapeutically more efficient.
AB - This article compares the therapeutic power used by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts serving in the German and Austro‐Hungarian armies during World War I, and the ways in which their therapeutic techniques were related to governmental and military authority. When treating “shell shocked” soldiers, army psychiatrists were guided by nationalist commitment rather than concern for their patients. Whatever theoretical approach they took, they defined their therapeutic task as administrative intervention aimed to increase the docility of soldiers to the state and its military purposes. But violent means of coercion, designed to force neurotic soldiers back into duty, remained inefficient. Drawing from an alternative body of knowledge, army physicians influenced by Freud's writings, or trained in psychoanalysis, applied cathartic methods to treat the Central Powers' soldiers. Their approach was not only more humane, but also proved to be therapeutically more efficient.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0026233659&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/1520-6696(199110)27:4<352::AID-JHBS2300270404>3.0.CO;2-9
DO - 10.1002/1520-6696(199110)27:4<352::AID-JHBS2300270404>3.0.CO;2-9
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:0026233659
SN - 0022-5061
VL - 27
SP - 352
EP - 365
JO - Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
JF - Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
IS - 4
ER -