After the Great Fire of London, Samuel Pepys seems to have suffered
post-traumatic stress syndrome without realising it. This book argues a thesis
that’s useful but rather obvious: that post-traumatic stress was “invented” to
make sense of the experiences of Vietnam veterans. Before that, survivors were
expected to pull their socks up and get on with their lives. The Harmony of
Illusions by Allan Young (Princeton, £28/$35, ISBN 0 691 03352 8)
accepts that the suffering involved is real, but adds that the condition itself
was the creation of particular theories of mind and memory. Good historical
details.
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