Examining Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Plight of Vietnam Veterans

Human beings have been afflicted by the lasting mental effects of warfare for thousands of years. Over twenty-four hundred years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of a soldier at the battle of Marathon who, after witnessing the death of the soldier next to him, went completely blind, despite being “wounded in no part of his body.”1 William Shakespeare, too, saw the effects of war on the minds of its survivors. After her husband’s return from war in King Henry IV, Lady Percy wonders of him, “What is’t that takes from thee thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?”2 Both of these writings reference a mental disorder seemingly caused by the intense traumas of war. This disorder has gone by many different names, including shell shock, the thousand-yard stare, and war neurosis. Today, we classify this disorder as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.