BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Psychiatry, hate training, and the Second World War

    Bourke, Joanna (2018) Psychiatry, hate training, and the Second World War. Journal of Social History 52 (1), pp. 101-120. ISSN 0022-4529.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    18265.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript

    Download (463kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    During the Second World War, the role of psychiatrists in military training was crucial. The part played by psychiatrists in training young men for combat was of intense interest to the family and friends of service personnel, as well as to men preparing for combat. Fearing that British men would be unable to cope with the rigors of the modern battlefield and heeding the advice of behaviorist psychologists, the military established battle schools. These “schools” or training camps would focus on “battle inoculation” and “hate training.” The first battle school was established by the British army in early 1942, and a psychiatrist was appointed to it. The school had two aims: first, to establish a new battle drill to replace older methods of training that had proven unworkable; second, to “condition students to the noise and fog of war” by using live ammunition and high explosives. However, this “hate training” came under sustained attack by psychiatrists and the general public. This article uses the lens of military training to reflect on the uses and abuses of psychiatry in times of national emergency.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The version of record is available online at the link above.
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 06 Mar 2017 11:41
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:31
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/18265

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    470Downloads
    6 month trend
    316Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item