History of War Trauma/Neuroses

The initial review in this chapter considers the general experience of war trauma and neuroses. The following review considers war trauma and neuroses in relation to African Americans.

The term "exposure to war" refers to the stressors inherent to the experience of war. Thus, the terms refers to experience with the actual conditions of war, such as being in the target area of a bombing attack or an artillery barrage, being in close combat conditions, living in an area where the dead and wounded from battle are returning from the front while other combatants are headed to the front, and so forth. The concept that exposure to war, one of the most stressful events experienced by human beings, can lead to the development in some persons of a form of mental illness is not new (Talbott, 1996).

An early manifestation of the psychological response to exposure to war was shell shock. The first published account of shell shock was that of Smith and Pear (1917) in the United Kingdom. Milne (1918), Marr (1919), Mott (1919) were other early contributors to the shell shock literature. The term "shell shock"

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nd World War. On the eve of that war, there were only five black officers in the entire American military, and three of those officers were chaplains. Black soldiers during the war continued to serve in segregated units, performing, for the most part, menial labor. Conflict between black and white soldiers was common. In spite these conditions, blacks proved themselves when given the chanceùnone more so than the all-black 99th Fighter Squadron, whose performance in combat in Europe won the highest praise of the previously skeptical commander of United States tactical air forces (Moskos, 1993). In December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, black soldiers were finally given the chance to prove that segregation was not only unjust but also was militarily inefficient. Critically short of combat troops, Lt. General John C. H. Lee, General Eisenhower's deputy commander for logistics, asked for black volunteers to fill the depleted ranks of white combat units. The black soldiers who volunteered performed exceptionally well in battle, gaining the respect of the white soldiers they fought next along side and the high regard of the white officers under whom they served. Notably, there was none of the hostility that usually exist
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Port Chicago, Nam War, World War, Psychiatric Association, Wolfe Taylor, Charney Deutch, Vietnam War, Civil War, Korean War, African American, viet nam, viet nam war, nam war, war veterans, african americans, american military, african american, armed forces, port chicago, united army, world war, american military personnel, american psychiatric association, veterans viet nam, keane wolfe taylor,
Approximate Word count = 10049
Approximate Pages = 40 (250 words per page)