The Painful Field: The Psychiatric Dimension of Modern WarColored by the popular and official mythologies of heroism, the accepted view of mental collapse during combat is that it is a fairly rare occurrence that can be attributed to psychological weakness or simple cowardice. With the advent of each new generation of weapons, however, this view becomes less tenable. The increasingly lethal battlefields of conventional warfare have sharply escalated the numbers of psychiatric casualties, which reached staggering proportions worldwide by the early 1980s. Professor Gabriel, a leading authority on military psychiatry, provides the first systematic examination of the problem, its history and current dimension, the systems developed by the superpowers to counter it, and the far-reaching implications of our continued acceptance of warfare under radically altered conditions. |
Contents
The Limits of Human Endurance | 25 |
The Face of Modern War | 47 |
Development of Soviet Military Psychiatry | 67 |
Copyright | |
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The Painful Field: The Psychiatric Dimension of Modern War Richard A. Gabriel No preview available - 1988 |
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ability American army American military anxiety artillery atric casualties attack battalion battle fatigue battle shock battle stress battlefield behavior brain cause chemical chiatric civilian combat shock combat stress commanders condition conscript dealing with psychiatric develop diagnosed diers division drugs emotional enemy evacuation expected experience fear fighting fire forces front function guns hospital human Ibid ical increased Israeli killed large numbers manifest medical personnel mental health military medical military psychiatry military service neurasthenia neurologists neuropsychiatric neurosis normal number of psychiatric number of soldiers patients percent physical physiological political officer psychi psychiatric breakdown psychiatric casualties psychiatric collapse psychiatric problems psychiatric symptoms psychosis rate of psychiatric reactive rear Richard Gabriel Russian Russo-Japanese War screening shaamans soldiers suffering Soviet army Soviet medical Soviet military psychiatrists Soviet psychiatrists tank target therapy tion treating psychiatric casualties troops U.S. Army U.S. military Vietnam Vietnam War weapons Western armies World War II wounded