MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS MAY HAVE HAD PTSD
We think of them as courageous, chivalrous, brutal and cold-hearted, but medieval knights lived hard lives and suffered.
By Emily Sohn
Tue Dec 20, 2011
In movies, medieval knights are portrayed as courageous and loyal heroes who will fight to the death without fear or regret.
In reality, the lives of knights were filled with a litany of stresses much like those that modern soldiers deal with.
They were often sleep-deprived, exhausted and malnourished. They slept outside on hard ground, fully exposed to whatever weather befell them. And their lives were full of horror and carnage as they regularly killed other men and watched their friends die.
Faced with the trauma inherent in a life of combat, according to a new look at ancient texts, medieval knights sometimes struggled with despair, fear, powerlessness and delusions. Some may have even suffered from post-traumatic stress or related disorders, argues a Danish researcher, just as their modern-day counterparts do.
No one knows for sure why Charny wrote the documents, whose translated titles included "The Book of Chivalry" and "Questions Concerning the Joust, Tournaments and War." The most popular theory is that they were part of an effort to create an ideological program for the royal French chivalric order that would rival the British equivalent.
Though many of these texts have been thoroughly analyzed already, Heebøll-Holm was the first to look between the lines through the lens of modern military psychology. And while it's hard to ever completely understand a culture that was so very different (and far more religious) than our own, Heebøll-Holm found a number of examples that would suggest at least the potential for trauma in medieval knights.
Among his writings, for example, Charny wrote:
"In this profession one has to endure heat, hunger and hard work, to sleep little and often to keep watch. And to be exhausted and to sleep uncomfortably on the ground only to be abruptly awakened. And you will be powerless to change the situation. You will often be afraid when you see your enemies coming towards you with lowered lances to run you through and with drawn swords to cut you down. Bolts and arrows come at you and you do not know how best to protect yourself. You see people killing each other, fleeing, dying and being taken prisoner and you see the bodies of your dead friends lying before you. But your horse is not dead, and by its vigorous speed you can escape in dishonour. But if you stay, you will win eternal honour. Is he not a great martyr, who puts himself to such work?"
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While the trauma, psychosocial, causation of behaviors diagnosed as PTSD is a popular explanation for them there is actually no proof that trauma causes the episodes.
ReplyDeleteNon combat Army Engineers building the ALCAN highway had similar mental events. They never left the United States and Canada.
Similar living arrangements in medieval times would have also allowed Subliminal Distraction. Severee conditions such as sleeping alone on the ground would have allowed relief from SD expsuere not made it worse.
It is more likely that believed PTSD behaviors are caused by Subliminal Distraction exposure from too-small single-room living arrangements.
Multiman tents and barracks are used for both combat and non combat soldiers.