Civil War PTSD

The psychological fallout of the war is a facet I haven’t studied enough. Drew Gilpin Faust illuminated some of this as it related to death, but the PTSD trauma cases in the post-bellum era aren’t as well documented.  This little article implies that there are scholars making inroads. I can’t wait to add some new books to my wish list!

“But there was at least this term, ‘soldier’s heart,’ which was the idea that these people weren’t the same as they used to be,” Gabriel said.

A student of Gabriel who was a double major in psychology and history wrote a paper on the subject several years ago.

The paper outlined cases of soldiers being put in insane asylums.

“There was also this belief that, if they prayed and focused on positive things, that they could be rehabilitated, but that was very hit and miss,” Gabriel said.

via During Civil War they called it ‘soldier’s heart’.

Leave a Reply