Echo Smith, University of Utah
Humanities
Since the publication, in 1995, of Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam, an increasingly popular view of PTSD in soldiers holds that modern day combatants experience the horrors of warfare in much the same way as did ancient Greek and Roman soldiers and that PTSD must have been just as prevalent in the classical world as it is today.
At heart, the intent of this position is altruistically therapeutic; the modern soldier with PTSD should take some solace from knowing that his/her condition is not a result of personal cowardice, inadequacy, or softness, since even the toughest, most renowned soldiers of classical antiquity also had to deal with PTSD. Ultimately, however, the position may be more detrimental than helpful in that it obstructs investigation into the complex issues surrounding wars conducted by otherwise highly civilized societies, especially the issue of modern war’s effect on individual soldiers.
The emotional makeup of the classical soldier and the nature of the wars he fought were so different from the mindset of his modern counterpart and his/her wars that one cannot assume that modern and ancient soldiers suffer(ed) PTSD to the same degree and in the same percentages. Ancient Greeks and Romans lived daily with levels of violence, vulnerability, and death that most Americans would find completely unacceptable today. Furthermore, the kind of personal liberty and well-being enjoyed by most modern Westerners was completely beyond the grasp of the average citizen in the Graeco-roman world. Because of the his cultural upbringing, the mindset that a classical soldier took into battle almost certainly steeled him, to some significant degree, against the blood, gore, death, and vulnerability he witnessed in battle. A soldier from such a society is not likely to experience the brutality and destruction of war in quite the same way as a modern combatant.