Posted in #2 Veterans, Starred Posts

“Cowardice”

  Published Date: September 18, 2017  6 Comments on “Cowardice”
Image result for cowardice ww2

A “deserter” in World War 2 http://www.npr.org/2013/06/17/189275754/wwii-deserters-stories-of-men-who-left-the-front-lines

Today we have learned just how important and real mental illness is in our society, particularly among our veterans and military personnel. However, in the World War II era these men were not given this same respect or aid. They were viewed as cowards or deserters and told that they were weak (similar to the man pictured above). While in reality these men were simply ordinary individuals that were put in extraordinarily horrible circumstances. Mental wounds are wounds all the same. Visibility is not what makes something real. However, it would appear that this visibility was the primary focus of military medicine at this time. In the article “If He Comes Home Nervous” by C. Jarvis, Jarvis tells the audience that even those that supported aiding these men viewed them as lesser to their counterparts. In the reading it is said by a supporter of the mentally wounded troops, Waller, that, “These ‘shell-shocked’ World War I veterans […] broke under stress and strains ‘that would not have harmed the ordinary man,'” he goes on to write that they have already cost the government a billion dollars. In other words, Waller believed that the reason these men must be helped is the monetary state of the United States and not the mental states of the men that fought for their country. Opinions like these made it truly vital to destigmatize mental illness in veterans. Men who suffered from PTSD after World War II were emasculated and viewed as weak. Therefore the effort to destigmatize these war wounds focused primarily on the physicalization of these wounds and comparison with World War I shell-shocked veterans. These men were able to feel superior to World War I veterans due to the wide-spread opinion that World War II was a more violent and terrible war. They also were able to feel above their predecessors because of their faster recovery, due to improved psychiatry. However, this was only an artifical band-aid and did nothing to solve the underlying prejudices of society. There were improvements made to how these men were treated after the war namely, the honorable discharge. This enabled men to be sent home from war for mental issues while maintaining their pride. It enabled them to be seen as men that had simply hit a breaking point as opposed to men that lacked bravery. The military also began encouraging veterans to support one another and talk with each other about what they had experienced. However, this was not always beneficial. This rhetoric resulted in the soldiers that so desperately needed to speak to a professional, believing the best therapist for them was their former comrade. This feeling of co-dependence is still present in our military today. Many men and women seek out the help of their friends as opposed to professionals for fear of being labeled with a stigma. This is something that we must seek to actively remedy if we wish to progress as a society.

Author: shelbycanonico

6 thoughts on ““Cowardice””

  1. I think it is interesting that you pointed out how the creation of the “honorable discharge” allowed people to view PTSD in a different light. Before that, people did see these individuals as weak and incapable of handling the hardships of war. After, it become more understood and accepted. The last thing a soldier with PTSD needs is being isolated by society for being “mentally unstable”.

  2. I found your post very engaging, there were a few thoughts and ideas that you had that never even occurred to me. After my reading of the article by Jarvis, I completely overlooked his point that WW1 veterans were seen as an economic strain more than as a group that need mental help. I think that is extremely important to mention and it supports the overall argument that veterans require and deserve better treatment as a status group. I do have one question after reading your post. You mention that mentally unstable soldiers should seek out professional help as opposed to talking to their friends, is there a particular reason you feel this way? I would think that any discussion could prove beneficial.

  3. This post does a great job of focusing in on the problem inherent in our military surrounding the idea of mental illnesses. You do a great job of showing the way that the military thought of what was happening to these people as an expense they didn’t want. But, Why do you think they honorably discharged people? Their family member wouldn’t have known how these problems occurred, so with the way of thinking at the time was this necessary?

  4. Your post really focused a lot on the mental aspect of war, which was honestly one of the most underestimated aspects of war. What do you think caused the shift in medicine? At a time where people were just beginning to understand psychiatry and bacteriology, post-war medicine really took a shift towards the intangible. I also though it was significant that you brought up the aspect of distrust, which brings in the whole double dimension of military medicine.

  5. I really liked your analysis of mental illness such as PTDS as a social epidemic as well as a health one in the sense that how society dealt with these individuals was just as much a part of the problem as the actual damage. I think we can still see the echoes of this in society today in our general reticence to discuss mental illness at large and how this creates a cycle of underreporting and a lack of awareness.

  6. I think an interesting theme in your post as well as other classmates posts is the idea of veterans discouraging each other form seeking help in the postwar period for mental health issues as seeking help was painted as a sign of weakness. Personally, the theme is discouraging to me because many soldier may have suffered more because of such discouragement. I agree with your conclusion that it is important to learn from these mistakes and encourage destigmatizing mental illness inside the armed forces today.

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