Human Salvage

Soldiers, Civilians, and Psychiatry in the Second World War
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-108-83093-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 274 Seiten, Gewicht: 540 g

Reihe: Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare

During the Second World War, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other experts confronted unprecedented numbers of patients, including distressed servicemen, bombed civilians, unaccompanied children, returning veterans, displaced persons, and Holocaust survivors. In the first comprehensive analysis of treatment during and after the war, Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen examines how British and American experts interpreted and responded to these diverse patient populations. Looking at both combatants and civilians together, she demonstrates that wartime psychiatry was less concerned with individual suffering than with managing mental distress at scale, revealing profound tensions in psychiatric thought over the causes of wartime mental disorder and its treatment. Perhaps most significantly, Human Salvage shows how the Second World War brought mass violence into the clinical realm, transforming psychiatric theory and practice for decades to come.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Roberts-Pedersen, Elizabeth

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. Grit in the machinery; 2. On the natural history of the bombing war; 3. Separation anxieties; 4. Repatriation and its discontents; 5. Adapting to displacement; 6. The psychopolitics of survival; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Roberts-Pedersen, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen is Associate Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is the author of Freedom, Faction, Fame and Blood (2010) and Making Mental Health (2024).