Understanding Changes

The Civil War occurred in an era when modern psychiatric terms and understanding did not yet exist. Men who exhibited what today would be termed war-related anxieties were thought to have character flaws or underlying physical problems. Constricted breath and palpitations---a condition called “soldiers heart” or “irritable heart” ---was blamed on exertion or knapsack straps drawn too tightly across soldiers’ chests. Asylum records show one frequently listed “cause” of mental breakdown was “masturbation.”