During the war, a new illness appeared and was given the name shellshock. Its symptoms were severe – nightmares, flashbacks, uncontrolled weeping and guilt at having survived when other soldiers had died – nut many people doubted that it really existed. Most thought that it was a personality defect such as cowardice or loss of nerve in the face of battle. They claimed that if the patient only “got a grip on himself” or “pulled himself together” (Watts, n.d.) it would disappear. Today shellshock is known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is properly recognised as a serious illness. Faced with a life in which there is no meaning – where the killing and horror of war have no purpose at all- a patient suffers a complete emotional and
