You are using the wrong term for France, they didn't have recruitment, they had conscription and national service (one of the reasons WWI happened so fast was that France and Germany called up huge numbers of reservists). So no volunteers having to prove their health, just large numbers of men desperately hoping they might fail.
The French for shell-shock is obusite. According to an article in the journal 'Histoire' from October 1998:
The first cases of obusite were diagnosed in early 1915, and at first doctors were inclined to dismiss it as malingering or attempts to get out of combat. In March 1915, however, the French government set up psychiatric facilities near the front line to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Soldiers who failed to recover within two years of diagnosis were considered "incurable" and sent to an insane asylum near their home
( ... )
Thank you, that helps a lot! I should be able to find the journal somewhere, so I can take a look at the whole of it. I suppose I'll have to go with the doctor claiming the condition having been untreated or something of the kind, as I really don't want to put the brother to an asylum, just to have the threat. It should work out, though, as the doctor character is quite a cunning fellow. :)
During WWI, shell-shock was basically considered to be one step up from cowardice. The treatment was basically "get them to buck up and go back out to the front" rather than "let's figure out what caused this and actually work to heal them." I don't think it would affect social status in any obvious sense--though there would probably be gossip about it among family friends, at least. I'm not sure if you could legally have a family member committed against his will, but if the family has money then the sister could almost certainly find some greedy and disreputable institution that would commit him, whether he wanted it or not.
(I'm a big Wilfred Owen fangirl, so most of my knowledge about the period comes from the reading I've done on him.)
It seems to me that at first it really was about cowardice, but then at least some doctors started to realise there was more to it. I may have to make them rich, though that wasn't my original plan, as it certainly would make certain things easier. Or, I guess I could just make the sister threaten to leave his on his own, in which case he probably wouldn't survive without more medical help.
Max Linder was declared unfit for combat duty and was a dispatch driver during the war --- which wasn't all that much safer than combat, as things turned out. And he was one of the most famous people on the planet at the time.
Comments 8
Sorry, no idea re shell shock.
Reply
Reply
The first cases of obusite were diagnosed in early 1915, and at first doctors were inclined to dismiss it as malingering or attempts to get out of combat. In March 1915, however, the French government set up psychiatric facilities near the front line to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Soldiers who failed to recover within two years of diagnosis were considered "incurable" and sent to an insane asylum near their home ( ... )
Reply
Reply
(I'm a big Wilfred Owen fangirl, so most of my knowledge about the period comes from the reading I've done on him.)
Reply
Thanks for the answer!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment