I had two BILs who were pleasant easy-going young married men before
WW-2. They came back with changed personalities; always ready to "take
on" anyone who disagreed with them. They were moody and often
disagreeable the rest of their lives.
One was in a motor pool that got surrounded in the Battle of the Bulge.
All he would say was that he and his fellow mechanics were issued rifles
and that the willingness of American troops to sacrifice themselves was
all that saved them. There were around 100,000 American casualties and
about 20,000 of those died.
The other was in a Seabee bomb demolition group in the South Pacific. I
don't remember how many were in the group originally but only nine
survived. He had a psychological breakdown after the war from which he
partially recovered. He was told never to take another drink and never
to stop working at some sort of job; no matter how little it paid. He
followed those suggestions but was never "normal" again.
Gerry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
Craig wrote:
They had PTSD when no one knew what it was. I have heard of others who
would not talk about what they went through.
Here is the way the used to deal with PTSD:
projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/?ch=two&mod=e2fb
It might still be appropriate, I don't know. It certainly was less
expensive than the pharma and counsel that people receive today.
mao
Before the first major tranquilizer was discovered in the early 1950s,
psychiatric hospitals were real "mad houses" with many "padded cells"
containing patients who would scream and bang their heads against the
walls night and day. Doctors had no drugs that would bring them back to
some semblance of sanity.
There was never any problem finding the psychiatric ward at local
hospitals since the screaming went on night and day.
Chlorpromazine (Thorazine) was truly a "miracle drug" for those patients
when it became available. The screaming, head banging, and violent
behaviour stopped for most of them and the wards became quiet.
(Chlorpromazine turned out to have severe side effects, however.
(Tardive diskinesia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardive_dyskinesia
Dr. Freemans advocacy of lobotomy was probably a forgiveable "sin"
considering the state of severely affected mental patients before
Chlorpromazine. Few people who had visited the psychiatric wards of
state hospitals during the 1930s would disagree in my opinion. The
major problem was the spreading of its use to patients were were not
severely afflicted.
Some post-lobotomy patients were interesting. They were irresponsible
and could seldom hold down jobs. "What me worry" was their mantra if
they were still capable of rational thought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy#Criticism
Gerry
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
