Traumatic Pasts

Traumatic Pasts 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 new 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 present-day debates and controversies. However, it is important to stress that these essays are not simply addressed to current concerns; rather, they reflect a shared conviction that trauma opens up new perspectives in the study of social and cultural history.

• The first book to bring together works from the burgeoning field of historical trauma studies • Very cross-cultural, and includes essays on America, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy by authors from all of these countries • Uniquely bridges the humanities and clinical sciences and will be of significant interest to researchers in both groups

1. Trauma, psychiatry and history: a conceptual and historiographical introduction Paul Lerner and Mark S. Micale; Part I. Travel and Trauma in the Victorian Era: 2. The railway accident: trains, trauma and technological crisis in nineteenth-century Britain Ralph Harrington; 3. Trains and trauma in the American gilded age Eric Caplan; Part II. Work, Accidents and Trauma in the Early Welfare State: 4. Events, series, trauma: the probabilistic revolution of the mind in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Wolfgang Schaffner; 5. The German welfare state as a discourse of trauma Greg A. Eghigian; Part III. Theorizing Trauma: Psychiatry and Modernity at the Turn of the Century: 6. Jean-Martin Charcot and ‘les nevroses traumatiques’: from medicine to culture in French trauma theory of the late nineteenth century Mark S. Micale; 7. From traumatic neurosis to male hysteria: the decline and fall of Hermann Oppenheim, 1889–1919 Paul Lerner; 8. The construction of female sexual trauma in American mental medicine at the turn of the century Lisa Cardyn; Part IV. Shock, Trauma and Psychiatry in the First World War: 9.‘Why are they not cured?’: British shellshock treatment during the Great War Peter Leese; 10. Psychiatrists, soldiers and officers in Italy during the Great War Bruna Bianchi; 11. ‘A Battle of Nerves’: hysteria and its treatments in France during World War I Marc Roudebush; 13. ‘Invisible wounds’: the American legion, shell-shocked veterans, and mental illness, 1919–1924 Caroline Cox.

‘The introductory essay should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the history of trauma within psychiatry. The book represents a successful fusion of cultural history and the history of ideas, and promises to intrigue historians and other readers for many years to come.’ Joanna Bourke, History Today

‘Each of the essays in this collection is a gem.’ British Medical Journal

‘… makes for a fascinating read … there is a depth of analysis that is refreshing … the introductory essay should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the history of trauma within psychiatry. the book represents a successful fusion of cultural history and the history of ideas, and promises to intrigue historians and other readers for many years to come.’ History Today

‘… it succeeds in providing a considerably more nuanced examination of the history of trauma, with an important comparative dimension.’ Times Literary Supplement

\' … with the publication of Traumatic Pasts the historical study of trauma can be said to have achieved intellectual maturity. … detailed and thoughful essays add new dimensions to our understanding of trauma, past and present, and provide important guidelines for future research.\' History Workshop Journal

‘In its balanced tone, careful documentation, and attentiveness to gender, class and culture, this … is a model for scholars of trauma in many disciplines.’ German History

‘… an exemplary introduction, in which the intellectual lineage of post-traumatic stress disorder is fully set out.’ Social History of Medicine

\' … this is a welcome and valuable book which adds significantly to our knowledge.\' Medical History

‘… this book represents a good example of the potential of comparative studies to cast fresh light on what may seem a familiar subject. Especially striking are the insights it reveals into the contrasting French and American responses to traumatized soldiers during the First world War.’ Annals of Science

‘The book’s primary goals are to provide a generous sample of the best new historical scholarship on 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 … All these goals are achieved in a readable style which … will appeal to a general readership beyond trauma experts.’ German Historical Institute Bulletin