The Chief Seat of Mischief: Soldier's Heart in the First World War

Abstract

Soldier's heart was a medico-psychiatric condition that was first documented during the American Civil War. This condition affected British and American soldiers during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries; doctors recorded patients experiencing palpitations, breathlessness, headaches, and praecordial pain among other symptoms. While the number of cases of this disorder reached its peak in the First World War, it disappeared shortly afterwards. Based on an analysis of experimental results published in generalist and specialized medical journals as well as the correspondence between physicians and researchers that these journals maintained, this study challenges the view that soldier's heart disappeared because doctors realized that the disorder was, in fact, psychosomatic. Instead, this article shows that this notion was an unintentional by-product of the research conducted into the condition, the results of which opposed the somaticist philosophy that many of the researchers had tried to uphold.

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“…Although psychological symptoms are common in POTS they usually are not causal (Masuki et al, 2007a ). Nevertheless, heart and circulatory neurasthenia and soldier's heart continue to be considered as post-traumatic stress disorder by some (Dyde, 2011 ; Borges et al, 2020 ). Signs and symptoms of POTS resemble extreme deconditioning as observed following prolonged bed rest or spaceflight (Vernikos and Convertino, 1994 ; Levine et al, 1997 ; Gisolf et al, 2005 ; Joyner and Masuki, 2008 ) and most subjects suffering from this condition benefit from exercise training (Harms and van Lieshout, 2001 ; Shibata et al, 2012 ).…”