The Psychological Impact of War Violence and Its Taming: “Shell Shock” in Greece during and in the Aftermath of the First World War

Abstract

The article examines the psychological impact of wartime violence on Greek soldiers during and in the aftermath of the First World War, focusing on the relationship between war-related mental disorders, violence and their institutional management. Situating Greece within the broader historiography of wartime brutalization and shell shock, it explores how Greece’s participation in the First World War (1917–1918) and the Greek-Turkish War (1919–1922) shaped soldiers’ mental health and behavior. Drawing on medical publications, contemporary press accounts, and archival material from the Dromokaiteion Psychiatric Hospital, the study analyzes both the reception of war neuroses in Greek scientific discourse and their practical “taming.” It argues that Greek psychiatrists recognized the psychological consequences of warfare, but generally incorporated them into existing psychiatric and neurological frameworks rather than developing a distinct diagnostic category comparable to shell shock.

DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2026.9