Discuss The Role Of Post War Development In Mental Health

From a patient perspective, was post-war development in mental health a good or bad thing?
The neurotic trauma and psychiatric casualties of the First and Second World War prompted the beginning of the Psychiatric Revolution. From a ‘pseudo-science’ to legitimised medical discipline, the Wars brought psychiatry to the forefront of public and government attention . While the First World War laid the foundations of medical innovations, the Second World War was the catalyst for the resurgence of mental health research and treatment. Subdisciplines including psychotherapy and psychopharmacology destigmatised mental illness for sufferers and prompted the discussion of mental wellbeing. The use of community care facilities and anti-psychotic drugs
Before 1914, mental health was not a serious concern of the government, military or medical community. Seen as a ‘pseudo-science’, psychology was not viewed on par with physical or life sciences and while the aetiology of mental illness had not been extensively researched, it was concluded to be hereditary or a part of degeneration . The Lunacy Act of 1890 consigned British mental health sufferers to the asylum system where they were isolated from the public. Conditions of asylums were penurious and treatment for patients suffering horrendous psychotic episodes were seldom. They were confined to the perimeters of the hospital and were seen as ‘a burden to the British government’ . There were no medical facilities in place for the public to confide in about their mental wellbeing as General Practitioners were not educated to diagnose or refer. In the military, trauma related mental disorders were not viewed as an ‘illness’ but rather a lack of virility and patriotism . Military medical screenings focused on physical wellbeing, with only 6% of the procedure allocated to mental health issues. The field of mental health was a neglected discipline of medicine that lacked recognition, funding and
While military medical screening had produced 468 defective men per thousand, statistics showed that over 10% of conscripted British soldiers had suffered from ‘nervous or mental shock’ by December 1914. The most prominent case was coined Shellshock by C.S Myers in 1915 which encompassed the experiences of artillery bombardment by soldiers. Shellshock was the somatisation of a traumatic experience with a range of physical and mental symptoms including dizziness, insomnia and anxiety. By 1916, psychiatric causalities, including Shellshock, accounted for a quarter of hospital admissions. The British Government became alarmed by its impact on soldiers and prompted a psychological investigation onto its aetiology. Shellshock became the first trauma based mental disorder seriously studied by psychologists. Psychiatrist Fredrick Walker Mott analysed Shellshock through first hand experiences of French soldiers in the Battle of the Somme, concluding the link between neurology and psychiatry. Mental disorders were engaged with the broader medical community and saw the development of Forward Psychiatry, devised as a treatment for shellshock and ‘today is the standard intervention for combat stress reaction’. There became medical recognition that external conditions influenced the development