Lewis Ralph Yealland was a Canadian-born therapist who came to Britain to practise medicine during the First World War and was at the forefront of experimental shock techniques to treat shell shock

Shell Shock

Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....

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War work

Yealland came to Britain during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and worked in London at the National Hospital for the paralyzed and epileptic, there he mainly dealt with cases of hysteria

Hysteria

Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...

. Yealland did not consider shell shock an illness, and believed men showing such symptoms displayed a lack of discipline or sense of duty. He practiced a form of therapy based on punishment. He was an exponent of auto-suggestion. Most of his patients recovered through suggestion and persuasion however in a few cases of severe symptoms he performed therapy with electric shock treatment. He gained a reputation for curing and sending his patients back to the trenches quickly. Yealland published his wartime findings in Hysterical Disorders of Warfare in 1918.

In popular culture

Lewis Yealland appears in Pat Barker

Pat Barker

Pat Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.-Personal life:...

's Regeneration

Regeneration (1997 film)

Regeneration is a 1997 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Pat Barker. The film is directed by Gillies MacKinnon. It was released as Behind the Lines in the USA in 1998.-Plot:...

. However, he is portrayed unsympathetically, treating a shell-shocked man suffering from hysterical mutism using electric shock treatment and showing no compassion for his patient.

External links

• Internet Archive "Hysterical Disorders of Warfare", Yealland, Lewis R. (Lewis Ralph), Macmillan, London 1918