The First Worl War, a Turning Point for Mental Health?

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Was the First World War a turning point in mental health 1870-1990? During the years 1870-1990 a great number of significant events occurred that affected the treatment of mental health and in some cases undoubtedly helped further its progression. Many of these came about during WW1, numerous amounts of people have suffered from mental health issues and illness over years but it was the event of the First World War that made some of the greatest contributions to the study and treatment of mental health. Within the four year time period of WW1 there was an out break of soldiers suffering from shell shock a mental health disorder because of this unforeseen issue a large number of new treatments where discovered and developed these treatments gave way for further study and treatment to be developed in years to come. Things such as cognitive reconstructive therapy this was developed during WW1 by Dr William H Rivers this is the process of learning/treatment used to explain things such as irrational thoughts “faulty thinking” with the aim of removing and or in some cases replacing irrational thoughts with more logical natural ones. This psychological approach was a great advance in mental health treatment and such a great discovery that it is still by far the most dominate psychology approach today its very useful as it has many practical applications to life for example on perception and memory as well as in education and the development of therapy. WW1 had significant influence on the development of mental health and psychological medicine it gave way for the practice of psychotherapy. Before the War there was certainly interest in Freudian ideas, but few actually used psychological methods to treat mental disorders. There was strong opposition from the psychiatric establishments, particularly to the Freudian emphasis on sexuality as underlying mental

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