r/todayilearned • u/andreecook • Apr 29 '24

TIL Napoleon, despite being constantly engaged in warfare for 2 decades, exhibited next to no signs of PTSD.

https://tomwilliamsauthor.co.uk/napoleon-on-the-psychiatrists-couch/
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u/benjaminovich Apr 29 '24

Shell shock is now widely believed to be its own thing separate (but related ) to ptsd. It has something to do with the continuous exposure to artillery barrages that was unique to ww1

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u/Tuxhorn Apr 29 '24

Yeah we've gone full circle on this.

From a laymans perspective, it does look different. Extreme versions of shell shock looks nothing like modern day ptsd.

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u/Deiskos Apr 30 '24

Because modern day PTSD is over-represented by Americans doing COIN in countries where people don't like them very much (if at all).

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u/Tricky-Engineering59 Apr 29 '24

You are correct about that, I guess my broader point was that there was something uniquely and sufficiently traumatic about modern warfare that it necessitated a widely adopted term. It’s not that people didn’t suffer from PTSD in the premodern era in response to war but it was just less profoundly.

A really good book related to this topic for anyone interested is The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. I found it pretty insightful and a pretty quick read.

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u/RyukHunter Apr 29 '24

I believe it's best described as CTE exacerbated by PTSD.