Shellshock in the College collections Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Major Arthur HurstMedical diseases of war1940, 2nd ed.Soon after the beginning of WWI, military doctors noticed that soldiers started to show neurological symptoms like dizziness, tremor, tinnitus, amnesia, weakness and headache. In most of these cases, there was no obvious physical injury. This condition became known as ‘shellshock’ or ‘war neurosis’. Some doctors believed it was caused by hidden brain injuries or carbon monoxide poisoning, while others accused the affected soldiers of malingering.

Hysteria, head injuries and heredity: 'shell-shocked' soldiers of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, Edinburgh (1914–24)

1 Cricket pitch at Claybury, before 1917 (Armstrong-Jones collection

Shell shock hospital hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Hysteria, head injuries and heredity: 'shell-shocked' soldiers of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, Edinburgh (1914–24)

Hysteria, head injuries and heredity: 'shell-shocked' soldiers of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, Edinburgh (1914–24)

Medicine in World War Two: Wounds, Shellshock and Penicillin

Medical History: Shell Shock

Unearthly Music', 'Howling Idiots', and 'Orgies of Amusement': The Soundscapes of Shell Shock at Edinburgh's Craiglockhart War Hospital, 1917–18, Nineteenth-Century Music Review

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh