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Effects Of PTSD In Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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PTSD has been known by numerous different names throughout history. Returning soldiers from the Civil War were said to have suffered from “soldier’s heart”. Used later in history, the term nervous shock was used in the late 19th century. At this point in history doctors thought nervous shock was only only caused physically. However, some doctors opposed this viewpoint and believed patients suffering from nervous shock had symptoms of hysteria, an outdated medical term for anxiety. These doctors started to piece together that nervous shock could be a mental illness rather than a physical disability. By the time World War I took place this debate became an even more pressing matter.
World War I took place in Europe between 1914-1918. Within …show more content…

Although Erich Maria Remarque wrote a couple more war stories after All Quiet on the Western Front, none became nearly as popular ("Erich Maria Remarque."). Remarque created a story about Paul, a young German soldier who suffers the effects of war. By being placed in the everyday life of Paul, the readers are able to read about the slow progression of PTSD. The experiences of war have aged these characters beyond their years, leaving Paul to believe they are “ forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, [they] are crude and sorrowful and superficial.” (Remarque 123). This feeling of disconnection from other people and society as a whole is a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (Frey & Fran; Poole 30; “Post-traumatic stress disorder.”). Paul and his comrades are unable to relate to anyone outside of their company. This isolation is depicted again when Paul returns home to his family. “But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home among these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano―but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.” (Remarque 160). Individuals who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder not only feel disconnected from society as a whole but also from their loved ones (Frey & Fran; Poole 30; "Post-traumatic stress

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