Case 506. (Rivers, February, 1918)
A young English officer was wounded just as he was extricating himself
from burial in a mass of earth. He became nervous and sleepless and lost his
appetite. After the wound had healed, he was sent home on leave, which had
to be extended as he got worse. An out-patient in London for a time, he was
finally sent to a convalescent home, still troubled with insomnia, battle
dreams and concern about his recovery. He made light of his condition and
was on the point of being returned to duty by the medical board, when his
sleeplessness led to his being sent to Craighlochart War Hospital.
He could not sleep without a light in a room, else every sound attracted his
attention. He tried hard all day long to banish all unpleasant and disturbing
thoughts, but at night it took him a long time to get to sleep and then came
vivid dreams of warfare. He did not, himself, feel that he could ever forget
the war scenes.
Rivers, in general believing that the attempt to banish such experiences
absolutely from the mind is poor psycho-therapy, narrated his views to the
patient. Rivers advised him no longer to try banish the memories, but to try
to transform them into tolerable, if not pleasant, companions. The war
experiences and anxieties were talked over. That night the man had the best
night he had had for five months, and during the following week the
sleeplessness was no longer so painful and distressing. If unpleasant
thoughts came, they had to do rather with home life than with the war.
General health improved; insomnia diminished. He was at last able to return
to duty. [p. 712]
Case 507. (Rivers, February, 1918)
An English officer was buried by shell explosion and developed severe
headache, vomiting and disorder of micturition, yet remained on duty for
more than two months. Collapse came when he went out to seek a fellow
officer and found the body blown to pieces, with head and limbs severed
from the trunk. This vision haunted him in dreams. Sometimes the officer
appeared as on the battlefield; again as leprous. The officer would come
nearer and nearer in the dream, until the patient woke pouring with sweat
and in utmost terror. Accordingly, he was afraid to go to sleep, and spent all
day thinking painfully about the night to come. Advice to keep all thoughts
of war out of mind merely brought the memories in sleep upon him with
redoubled force and horror.
Rivers' therapy was to draw attention to the fact that the terrible mangling
proved conclusively that the officer had been killed outright and without
pain. The officer said he would now no longer attempt to banish the
thoughts and memories of his friend, but would concentrate on the pain and
suffering his friend had been spared. No dreams at all came for several
nights, but one night in his dream he went out into No-Man's-Land and saw
the mangled body, but without horror. He knelt down, as he had in the
original experience, and woke as he was taking off the Same Browne belt to
send to the relatives. A few nights later came another dream in which he
talked with his friend. There was but one more dream in which horror
occurred. [p. 713]
Case 329. (Myers, March, 1916)
A corporal, 39, had been working under shell fire at barbed-wire
entanglements. The man was big and robust, but much depressed,
complaining of noises in the head, pricking pains, unsteady legs, fatigue,
irritability, loss of confidence. He showed tremors of arms and legs on
movement, and stood unsteadily with eyes closed. He said: "My legs have
been very unsteady, especially when some one is looking at me. They must
have thought me drunk at times."
The head and tongue were tremulous, the knee-jerks exaggerated, the soles
insensitive to touch and pain; but sensibility to deep pressure was
retained. . . .
Case 341. (Mott, February, 1918)
A sergeant, who had been a schoolmaster, was asked to write down his
dreams by Captain W. Brown, who had sometimes charge of Mott's cases at
the Maudsley Hospital. The first dream was as follows:
"I appeared to be resting on the roadside when a woman (unknown)
called to me to see her husband's (a comrade) body which was about to be
buried. I went to a field in which was a pit, and near the edge four or five
dead bodies. In a hand-cart nearby was a legless body, the head of which
was hidden from sight by a slab of stone. . . . On moving the stone I found
the body alive, and the head spoke to me, imploring me to see that it was not
buried. Burial party arrived, and I was myself about to be buried with
legless body when I awoke."
The second dream was as follows: