Shell-shock and Other Neuropsychiatric Problems

Soldiers' symptoms and the difficulties of interpreting them fill Elmer Ernest Southard's collection of 589 case histories drawn from wartime medical literature. Published in 1919, the volume brings together reports on shell-shock and related neurological and psychiatric problems during the First World War. Southard explains that a teaching resource for army physicians developed into a sourcebook for those concerned with treatment and recovery.

The cases combine observations of individual patients with arguments about diagnosis. Impaired movement, altered sensation and reflex responses prompt disagreements over the roles of physical injury, emotion and suggestion. Clinical detail sits alongside competing explanations, giving readers a close view of medical reasoning under pressure. The collection offers historical evidence of how physicians approached wartime mental health and the continuing demands of recovery after the fighting ended.