From ww1 onwards it looks like every war creates its share of veterans with PTSD but I never see anything mentioned about the period before that, especially in the middle age before the introduction of gunpowder. Killing other men with a sword must have been even more traumatic. Do we know if this was actually the case?
In: 2
Very likely. From the Wikipedia article on PTSD:
*Aspects of PTSD in soldiers of ancient Assyria have been identified using written sources from 1300 to 600 BCE.* (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-traumatic_stress_disorder).
However, the definition and diagnosis of PTSD as we know it today only started in the mid 20th century. So people didn‘t look at those symptoms the same way we do it today and it‘s hard to remote-diagnose people from the past from written records. But let‘s say it like this: Even millennia ago, people in war developed psychological distress that matches the symptoms we associate with PTSD today.
Latest Answers