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Published on: March 8, 2018
Trauma-induced dissociative amnesia in World War I combat soldiers
O van der Hart1, P Brown, M Graafland
1Department of Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. onnovdh@wxs.nl
Objective:
This study relates trauma-induced dissociative amnesia reported in World War I (WW I) studies of war trauma to contemporary findings of dissociative amnesia in victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Method:
Key diagnostic studies of post-traumatic amnesia in WW I combatants are surveyed. These cover phenomenology and the psychological dynamics of dissociation vis-à-vis repression.
Results:
Descriptive evidence is cited for war trauma-induced dissociative amnesia.
Conclusion:
Posttraumatic amnesia extends beyond the experience of sexual and combat trauma and is a protean symptom, which reflects responses to the gamut of traumatic events.
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