Module Directory

What is ‘trauma’? How and why has it become an emblem of suffering in contemporary societies? This module traces the social and medical history of trauma from 1900 through the ‘invention’ of PTSD in the 1970s to the present. It examines the social changes that have put trauma on the map, and how understandings of trauma reflect the social norms of their time.

The module topics cover two related themes: the role of psychology in military conflict during the twentieth century, and the impact of social movements from the 1960s concerned with the victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, racial injustice, and colonial traumas. The Autumn term covers the World Wars of the twentieth century, colonial conflicts in India and Algeria, and the medical and social legacies of the Vietnam war. Spring term examines social movements around childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, the AIDs epidemic, and the politics of memorialising trauma. Investigating the history of military psychiatry alongside the victim social movements of the 1960s and 70s, the module develops a critical understanding of trauma culture and medicalisation.

The aims of this module are:

• To examine how medical understandings of trauma reflect the social norms of their time.


• To consider the discovery of ‘shell-shock’ in the First World War and concludes with Gulf War Syndrome and the expansion of PTSD in the 1990s.


• To investigate the history of military psychiatry alongside representations of war trauma in art, film, and personal testimony.


• To develop a critical understanding of trauma culture in ‘the age of catastrophe’.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to have:

1. Knowledge of global conflicts across the 20th Century and their psychological impact on participants and later generations.


2. A critical understanding of concepts of trauma past and present, how they are shaped by society and history, and how they change over time from ‘hysteria’ and ‘soldier’s heart’ to ‘shell-shock’ and ‘PTSD’.


3. A capacity to analyse and interpret testimonies of trauma, including novels, memoirs, official sources, oral testimony and film, and locate them in time and place

This module draws on approaches from the sociology of medicine and the history of modern warfare to examine how medical understandings of trauma reflect the social norms of their time. Beginning with the late nineteenth century and cases of hysteria, the module considers the discovery of ‘shell-shock’ in the First World War and concludes with Gulf War Syndrome and the expansion of PTSD in the 1990s. The therapeutic industries of today, it could be argued, are the children of war. Investigating the history of military psychiatry alongside representations of war trauma in art, film, and personal testimony, the module develops a critical understanding of trauma culture in ‘the age of catastrophe’.

Please view the Introduction video to The Age of Trauma via Moodle.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour seminar each week.

Face-to-face attendance is expected.