BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 13 – Broken Bodies, Wounded Souls: The Psychosomatic Protest of Shell Shock

Chapter Summary

This chapter explores the history of shell shock during the First World War as a moment of profound crisis in psychology, culture, and medicine. Drawing on the concept of psychosomatic protest, it examines how trauma manifested differently in officers and ordinary soldiers, shaped by class, power, and military expectations. Officers were often haunted by moral injury, while lower-ranked men exhibited physical symptoms such as paralysis or mutism, bodily expressions of suffering that could not be spoken about, let alone discussed. The chapter contrasts the empathetic therapeutic methods of W. H. R. Rivers with the punitive disciplinary approach of Lewis Yealland, revealing how social hierarchies were reproduced through psychological treatment. It also briefly explores the cultural afterlife of shell shock through interwar literature and poetry and connects these early twentieth-century debates to later understandings of psychological trauma, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Ultimately, shell shock is presented not simply as a medical condition but as a politically and symbolically charged episode in the history of psychology, one that continues to shape how we think about trauma, masculinity, and the ethics of care.

Chapter 13 – Quiz

  • Chapter 13 – Flashcards

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  • Chapter 13 – Key Readings

    Barham, P. (2004). Forgotten lunatics of the Great War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 

    Brunner, J. (1991), Psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and politics during the First World War. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 27(4), 352-365. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6696(199110)27:4<352::AID-JHBS2300270404>3.0.CO;2-9 

    Carden-Coyne, A. (2014). The politics of wounds: Military patients and medical power in the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

    Downing, T. (2016). Breakdown: The crisis of shell shock on the Somme, 1916. London: Little, Brown.  

    Jones, E. (2018). Trans-generational transmission of traumatic memory and moral injury. Military Behavioral Health, 6(2), 134–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2018.1454362 

    Jones, E., & Wessely, S. (2005). Shell shock to PTSD: Military psychiatry from 1900 to the Gulf War. Psychology Press. 

    Leuenberger, C. (2003), Beyond invisible walls: The psychological legacy of Soviet trauma. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 39(2), 183-184. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.10071 

    Mather, R., & Marsden, J. (2004). Trauma and temporality: On the origins of post-traumatic stress. Theory & Psychology, 14(2), 205-219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354304042017 

    Shephard, B. (2001). A war of nerves: Soldiers and psychiatrists in the twentieth century. Harvard University Press. 

    Showalter, E. (1987). The female malady: Women, madness and English culture, 1830–1980. Virago. 

    Trembinski, D. (2011). Comparing premodern melancholy/mania and modern trauma: An argument in favor of historical experiences of trauma. History of Psychology, 14(1), 80–99. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020430 

    Zait, J. (2024). “I’m not a person anymore”: The “survivor syndrome” and William G. Niederland’s perception of the human being. History of Psychology, 27(2), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000250

  • Chapter 13 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of ‘psychosomatic protest’ reveal about the meaning of shell shock symptoms? 
    2. How did class and military rank influence the diagnosis and treatment of shell shock during the First World War? 
    3. In what ways did the treatment approaches of Rivers and Yealland reflect broader systems of power and control? 
    4. How does the concept of moral injury help us understand the long-term psychological impact of war on soldiers? 
    5. What role did literature and poetry play in shaping public understanding of shell shock?

  • Chapter 13 – Weblinks

    Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock (Podcast Transcript)

    https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock

    This webpage contains a transcript of a podcast episode focusing on Shell Shock in WW1, with testimonies discussing individuals who were suffering from the condition and how it impacted their lives. This enables students to get a glimpse of the real effects of shell shock on the individuals who suffered with it, with the information presented in an accessible way. 

    BBC Witness History – Shell Shock (Educational Resource)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04cch8h

    This 9-minute episode of the BBC Podcast series Witness History covers the topic of shell shock by including archive recordings of veterans talking about their own experiences during the war, giving students the ability to engage practically with shell shock as a tactile concept.

    Wellcome Collection – Shell Shock (Educational and Archival Resource)

    https://wellcomecollection.org/search/works?query=shell+shock

    This website contains an extensive archive of accessible resources on shell shock and war neuroses, with an easy-to-use search function enabling students to engage with a variety of educational documents.

    Edinburgh Napier University – War Poets Collection (Educational Resource)

    https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/our-location/our-campuses/libraries-and-heritage-collections/heritage-collections/war-poets-collection

    This page gives an overview of the Edinburgh Napier University collection of War Poetry from Craiglockhart War Hospital, giving students the ability to engage with some of the more tragic and human aspects of shell shock, including information on Sassoon and Owen.

    Poetry Foundation – Wilfred Owen (Educational Resource)

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wilfred-owen

    This page gives extensive information on the life and works of Wilfred Owen, discussing who he was both before and after the war and providing information and context on the works he produced during his life.

    Shell Shock or Cowardice? – The case of Harry Farr (Video Lecture and Transcript)

    https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shell-shock-or-cowardice-case-harry-farr

    This webpage contains a 56-minute video lecture (with a downloadable transcript available) discussing the case of Private Harry Farr, a British soldier who was executed for alleged cowardice during the Battle of the Somme. This lecture gives students the opportunity to examine the way that shell shock was treated during the war, before it was acknowledged as a legitimate condition over which the soldiers had no control.

    WW1 and America’s First PTSD Research – Dickinson College (Educational Video)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJzSDshLDXw This short 5-minute YouTube video provides an accessible introduction to some pioneering research in America during the First World War looking at what would come to be the diagnosable condition of PTSD.