PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) is a term that became prominent in 1980 when the American Psychiatric Association recognized it as a mental health diagnosis that was often used to describe Vietnam War veterans and Holocaust survivors. Although PTSD could also apply to survivors of violent crimes, natural disasters and other calamities, it is more often association with war victims. Shellshocked is an earlier term for this disorder and was common in describing afflicted soldiers returning from battle during World War I. The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West’s debut novel (published in 1918), was unique for featuring a shellshocked war veteran whose return home exposed his fragile mental condition to those who knew him before he went to battle. West’s novel was also significant for addressing such prevalent concerns in the narrative as class differences, Freudian psychoanalysis (which was popular at the time) and the lives of women living in a patriarchal society. All of this was skillfully integrated into the overlooked 1982 film adaptation of The Return of the Soldier, which faithfully captures the spirit and central focus of West’s narrative, one that utilizes the shellshocked protagonist as a means to examine three important women in his life and their response to his war trauma.
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Cinema Sojourns 