Healing the Nation: Prisoners of War, Medicine, and Nationalism in Turkey, 1914--1939

Yücel Yanikdağ explores how, during the First World War, Ottoman prisoners of war and military doctors discursively constructed their nation as a community, and at the same time attempted to exclude certain groups from that nation. Those excluded were not always from different ethnic or religious groups as you might expect. The educated officer prisoners excluded the uncivilised and illiterate peasants from their concept of the nation, while doctors used international socio-medicine to exclude all those – officers, enlisted men, civilians – they deemed to be hereditarily weak. What Did Ottoman Prisoners Of War Imprisoned In Russia And Egypt During The Great War Understand Of Nation, Culture And Islam? And What Role Did Science Play In The Imagined Future Of The Nation For The Ottoman-turkish Psychiatrists Who Diagnosed Prisoners Following Post-war Repatriation? Doctors' Interpretation Of Prisoners' Health Issues Led To Far-reaching Questions About The Relationship Between The Prisoners' Physical Bodies And Mental States On The One Hand, And The Body Politic And Collective Mentality Of The Turkish Republic During The Interwar Period, On The Other. During The Interwar Years, When The Military's Vigour Was Still Taken To Be A Reflection Of The Nation's Health, Doctors Projected The Worrisome Picture Of The Shattered Nerves Of Both Prisoner And Non-prisoner Alike Onto The Nation At Large. The Great War Revealed The Poor Health Of The Nation And Gave Medical Men The Chance To Regenerate It Through Eugenics. Just As Officer Prisoners In The Camps Excluded Ignorant Peasants From Their Discursive Construction Of The Nation, The Psychiatrists Disqualified Those Seen To Threaten The Nation's Body. Explores how the Great War influenced the construction of identity and nationalism in the Ottoman Empire Yucel Yanikdag explores how, during the Great War, Ottoman prisoners of war and military doctors discursively constructed their nation as a community, and at the same time attempted to exclude certain groups from that nation. Those excluded were not always the ethnic or religious Other as might be expected. They frequently included the internal Other in different guises. While the educated officer prisoners excluded the uncivilised and illiterate peasant from their concept of the nation, doctors used international socio-medicine as the basis for excluding all those - officers, enlisted men, civilians - they deemed to be hereditarily weak. Through the course of this study, Yanikdag looks at broader questions of nationhood. When are nations constructed? Is it when groups of people begin to think of themselves as a nation? What roles do science and medicine, as 'rational' fields of inquiry, play in shaping national and cultural identities? What role does Otherness play in the construction of national community? Contents Acknowledgements Author’s note on usage List of maps and figures List of tables Maps Introduction 1. The Ottoman Great War and Captivity in Russia and Egypt 2. Imagining Community and Identity in Russia and Egypt: A Comparison 3. Saviour Sons of the Nation: Inside the Prisoners’ Minds 4. Prisoners as Disease Carriers: Cases of Pellagra and Trachoma 5. War Neuroses and Prisoners of War: Wartime Nervous Breakdown and the Politics of Medical Interpretation 6. Degenerationist Pathway to Eugenics: Neuropsychiatry, Social Pathology and Anxieties over National Health Epilogue: The Search for a Useable Past: Prisoners of War, the Ottoman Great War and Turkish Nationalism Bibliography Index Yucel Yanikdag explores how, during the First World War, Ottoman prisoners of war and military doctors discursively constructed their nation as a community, and at the same time attempted to exclude certain groups from that nation. Those excluded were not always from different ethnic or religious groups as you might expect. The educated officer prisoners excluded the uncivilised and illiterate peasants from their concept of the nation, while doctors used international socio-medicine to exclude all those †“ officers, enlisted men, civilians †“ they deemed to be hereditarily weak. Explores how the Great War influenced the construction of identity and nationalism in the Ottoman Empire. This title also explores how, during the First World War, Ottoman prisoners of war and military doctors discursively constructed their nation as a community, and at the same time attempted to exclude certain groups from that nation.