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Social History of Medicine Advance Access originally published online on February 2, 2009
Social History of Medicine 2009 22(1):97-114; doi:10.1093/shm/hkn099
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Families and Institutions for Shell-Shocked Soldiers in Australia after the First World War

Marina Larsson*

* La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne 3086, Australia. E-mail: m.larsson{at}latrobe.edu.au


  Abstract

Since the 1980s, numerous historical studies have provided a complex picture of the relationship between families and psychiatric institutions. Historians of shell-shock have been slow to respond to this literature. Instead, their primary interest has been in the medical treatment of the condition, as well as state and cultural responses. This article offers a fresh perspective on the treatment of shell-shocked soldiers by examining families' involvement in their institutionalisation in Australia after the First World War. It explores how kin mobilised the repatriation discourse of ‘preference’ to secure treatment for veterans in segregated mental hospitals which separated military cases from ‘confirmed civilian lunatics’. This article argues that by asserting that ex-servicemen were a more deserving class of patient, veterans' kin strategically deployed the stigma of mental illness to ensure better quality care for ex-servicemen, preserve their heroic identity as soldiers, and deflect some of the eugenic shame of ‘madness’.

Keywords: shell-shock; mental illness; families; First World War; repatriation; veterans; mental hospitals; preference


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