Traumatic Pasts: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma in the Modern Age, 1870-1930 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine)

Traumatic Pasts, originally published in 2001, offers a variety of perspectives on mental trauma in war, medicine, culture and society in modern European and American history. Its primary goals are: to provide a generous sampling of the best of the historical scholarship about trauma; to indicate the empirical, analytical and methodological scope of this work; and to present some of the conceptual and methodological issues inherent in writing about the subject. The book operates on the premise that the historical humanities have something crucially important to say about trauma; its essays may be read, in part, as attempts to introduce a deep historical dimension into ongoing debates and controversies. However, it is important to stress that these essays are not simply addressed the concerns; rather, they reflect a shared conviction that trauma opens up fresh perspectives in the study of social and cultural history. y A comprehensive book bringing together works from the burgeoning field of historical trauma studies y Very cross-cultural, and includes essays on America, Britain, France, Germany and Italy by authors from all of these countries y Uniquely bridges the humanities and clinical sciences and will be of significant interest to researchers in both groups Trauma, Psychiatry, And History : A Conceptual And Historiographical Introduction / Paul Lerner And Mark S. Micale -- Railway Accident : Trains, Trauma, And Technological Crises In Nineteenth-century Britain / Ralph Harrington -- Trains And Trauma In American Guilded Age / Eric Caplan -- Event, Series, Trauma : The Probabilistic Revolution Of The Mind In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries / Wolfgang Schaffner -- German Welfare State As A Discourse Of Trauma / Greg A. Eghigian -- Jean-martin Charcot And Les Nevroses Traumatiques : From Medicine To Culture In French Trauma Theory Of The Late Nineteenth Century / Mark S. Micale -- From Traumatic Neurosis To Male Hysteria : The Decline And Fall Of Hermann Oppenheim, 1889-1919 / Paul Lerner -- Construction Of Female Sexual Trauma In Turn-of-the-century American Mental Medicine / Lisa Cardyn -- Why Are They Not Cured? : British Shellshock Treatment During The Great War / Peter Leese -- Psychiatrist, Soldiers, And Officers In Italy During The Great War / Bruna Bianchi -- Battle Of Nerves : Hysteria And Its Treatments In France During World War I / Marc Roudebush -- Invisible Wounds : The American Legion, Shell-shocked Veterans, And American Society, 1919-1924 / Caroline Cox. Edited By Mark S. Micale, Paul Lerner. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Trauma--the psychological consequences of wars, accidents and abuse--has become the subject of heated debate among doctors, psychologists, and lay critics (and activists) in recent years. The essays in this book trace the origins of these debates in medicine and culture in modern Europe and America. They cover medical and cultural aspects of experiences understood to be "traumatic" from rail and factory accidents in the later nineteenth century through the First World War and its aftermath. "At last scholars interested in the subject of trauma have a collection of interdisciplinary essays representing both the most thorough research and the most incisive thinking in the field. This indispensable book will move the discussion of trauma beyond fashionable metaphor to historical documentation."- Elaine Showalter, Princeton University In light of the catastrophes and cataclysms that have marked twentieth-century history, it is scarcely surprising that trauma has emerged as a highly visible and widely invoked concept.

The essays in this book trace the origins of ongoing heated debates regarding trauma.