Thread: War

Doubtfull.

I don't think so... People experience horrible things in their dreams all the time. That's what nightmares are. Even if you don't consciously realize you're dreaming, your mind still knows it and how to seperate it from reality.

In short, I think if that were possible, we'd all be mental wrecks by now....

Sure, in the sense that if you convince yourself you have post war syndrome, you'll definitely have post war syndrome.

-------

I mean it. Try it. Go to a psychologist and say, "I have post war syndrome." They'll give you pills for it in no time.

i agree with Khaz. i don't believe it is possible to wake from a dream and find that you have now suddenly developed a psychological disorder. and if you have a shrink that prescribes pills on face value, you should get a new one.

as far as convincing yourelf that you have a condition does not give it to you. if i try to convince myself that i have attention deficit disorder it ... doesn't ... what? can't remember what i was saying, haha

Originally posted by Khaz
In short, I think if that were possible, we'd all be mental wrecks by now....

A full 1/3 of Americans are considered mentally ill by the American Psychiatric Association. And who knows how many more, as they continue to broaden their definition of illness? Did people suffer from Post War Syndrome in Rome, Ancient China, or even the Middle Ages?

Religion has always attempted to hide or keep our mental wreckage in check, hasn't it? Granted, it hasn't done a very good job.

[Edited typo]

i think this could start an intresting debate. did they have post war syndrome? did they have psychotics? many of todays' mentaly ill pateints were described in history as being posessed, burnt by the stake or exiled. as far as post war syndome, it might be possible that the soldiers just didn't live long enough to experience it, there being no antibiotics nor specialized surgery. does anyone know the life expectancy of an average roman, greek or barbarian soldier?

found this as an afterthought: http://www.mmdtkw.org/VRomanMedicine2002.html

When you say Post War Syndrome, don't you really mean Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? People can get this from experiences other than war.

Oh and another thing, I don't think that soldiers in ancient times experienced PTSD (though I'm just making an educated guess here so please bear with me). For one, people were living differently and some of the everyday things they went through might be considered rare and really creepy by today's standards (sorry I don't have an example here). People nowadays are used to certain standards of behavior which aren't the same as ancient times so maybe that has something to do with it, since war basically hasn't changed over the years in that its still people on one side killing people on the other while the other people are trying to do the same. Just a thought.

Well yes, Merck, if you need to be technical, the correct term is in fact post traumatic stress disorder, i.e. a mental disorder caused by an event outside the range of normal human experience. It could be reasoned that the people of ancient times were more adapted to the horrors of war, it being more a part of their existence than we experience it today. After all, they had been at war for a longer period of time than we were. But does it really exclude them from having a post traumatic episode or disorder? I don’t believe it is within the normal range of the human psyche to ever come to terms with the atrocities of war without some psychological scarring.

Well, just my thoughts…

Originally posted by Aramis
You get Post War Syndrom after going to war and seeing horrable things so could you dream you were in a war and wake up with post war syndrom?

The stresses need to be so chronic and prolonged that the Mind adapts counter-measures and coping mechanisms in order to deal with both the stress and the situations which engender the stress. The Violence has to be habitual enough to create a habitual and lasting response. I know that TV Dramas make a lot of mileage out of supposing that people's entire lives can be dysfuntionally traumatized by one isolated bad occurrance, and yes, one bad situation can create trust issues and may take some time to get over and sail through, but the more serious Post Traumatic Stress Situations come from having lived day in and day out for an extended period in a High Stress set of circumstances in which extremely protective or violent habits and patterns of behaving, and in which borderline paranoid cognitive associations can actually be workable survival mechanisms. It creates a problem later when the Real World Back Home is still perceived and treated the same as the War Zone back over there.

But it can be a catalyste for a good degree of spiritual growth, how these Post Traumatic Stress Victims contrive to grown out of their Negativity and Fears. Afterall, habits can be broken if sufficient energies are applied in that direction. A very good book was written on the subject, even before Post Traumatic Stress had a name. The book, by Somersett Maughm, "The Razor's Edge" tells of a young pilot traumatized by the aerial battles of World War One, who turns to Spirituality and a Personal Holiness in order to allay the private torments of his traumatization.

does anyone know the life expectancy of an average roman, greek or barbarian soldier? [/b]

I know that the life expectancy of a Roman Legionair was actually longer than the life expectancy of a Roman civilian. Basically every Roman soldier had access to a doctor, and the doctors were rather good, especially for the time. The Romans developed many fine tools like scalples, staples (to be used as opposed to stitches, which we are only recently beginning to use again), and even some tools for primitive forms of brain surgery. As for PTSS I'm not so sure. Hasn't this syndrome mostly effected Vietnam Veterans because of the odd style of guerrilla fighting that noone expected? I believe most ancient civilizations had some pretty strict rules on how conduct a battle, so all the soldiers kind of knew what to expect.

Kind of left the topic but I figured I'd answer brufonite's question,

Nick

I think it takes much longer periods of exposure and many more factors than just "seeing horrible things." Otherwise horror and war movies would be illegal I'm sure.

Originally posted by EmmDoubleEw
I think it takes much longer periods of exposure and many more factors than just \"seeing horrible things.\" Otherwise horror and war movies would be illegal I'm sure.

Why? Wars aren't illegal.

Lots of things are illegal that shouldn't be and vice versa. I don't mean to pick on you, but the statement "otherwise it would be illegal," is an epic fallacy.

It doesn't matter, if horror/war movies were outlawed, they would still be made. And rest assured, if wars were illegal ( just in the U.S.?) they would DEFINATELY still happen. If someone had come up with an idea on how to stop wars, that actually worked, then I think we'd know.

EDIT: fixed spelling.

Originally posted by Alucinor Architecton
EDIT: fixed spelling.

"Definitely" is one of those words you DEFINITELY want to spell right.

Originally posted by Ex Nine
\"Definitely\" is one of those words you DEFINITELY want to spell right.

Oh absolutely! And always make sure you never mis-pronounce pronunciation!