News Recent News About Ptsd In 1300bc

[anthony]

If you read PTSD news, then for the last couple of weeks you would be reading about all these puppets who regurgitate without really comprehending. Me personally, I agree with http://mindhacks.com/2015/01/24/a-misdiagnosis-of-trauma-in-ancient-babylon/ and that the author is really stretching things to assimilate ancient text with PTSD symptoms.

I will let you make up your mind though. My opinion is that the author is reaching broadly for any assimilation to write their article. You may agree with their view.

I'm not saying the same thing wasn't present, they just lacked such psychiatry skills back then to put the same words as today, to then... but I think someone wandering around for 3 days does not equate to PTSD.

See attached.

 

[Sweetpea76]

I might take this more seriously if it was written by pre-modern historians who studied Babylonian culture instead of psychiatrists. Their historical sources are all secondary, and many of them are dated they definitely fall into the amateur historian trap of presentism. It looks like a freshman world civ paper written by a psych major to me.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

What?

Funny how its always stressed that you can't diagnose someone unless you're trained in diagnosing (ie a Psychiatrist) and you've treated said patient. Now we're handing out diagnosis' for people who have been dead for 3300 years!?!

I don't deny that these symptoms have existed for quite a long time. I'd go so far as to say that this sort of stress isn't even unique to the human species as evidence of post traumatic symptoms can indeed be seen in other animals (which means that its possible that these effects have been around for millions of years). But to say that it is the *disorder* as opposed to simply being possible evidence of post traumatic stress? I think that goes too far as PTSD is a medical disorder with specific criteria, and there is no way of determining a full blown diagnosis based on these ancient texts.

 

[Friday]

Squelch squelch squelch... That's the sound of my brain trying to assume unevidentiary premises used to support a conclusion I have no idea if I agree with... Because where in the hell did he get his premises from??? I certainly don't agree with them... So I'm going to have to work my way backwards through his sources to his premises before even getting to his conclusion. To see if he has any basis for them (doubt it). And me poor brain just isn't processing things that well at the moment. Might be cause it fell out of my head to ooze about on the floor through the gaps in some of his logic... And I won't be able to think straight until I can work out if his premises are bullshit. Will update when rational thought returns. I don't have high hopes, however.

Well because A must have, & B rampant bias & ignorance, & C-F (which have nothing even to do with A&B) therefor A+B= ....

No! Back up! What's this A&B bullshit? Back up. Start over.

ETA... Ha. Mindhacks went ahead and assumed the premises & still came up with "Sorry, Charlie. That dog won't hunt." So now I've got even less hope. Which is disappointing. I like learning things more than disproving them.

 

[reallydown]

I find this article ridiculous. Take this claim, for example: "In fact, historians have not been able to convincingly find any PTSD-like descriptions in history and there seems a virtually complete absence of any records of flashbacks in the medical records of First and Second World War veterans,..." Really? And where is your evidence for this? have you looked through all the medical records from all time? Actually, some descriptions of PTSD like symptoms do indeed come from ancient times. Read the Iliad and The Odyssey...And I would say it is very likely that soldiers in ancient times would've had PTSD...They might have explained it in terms etc.that were familiar to them but I don't think we can really say they didn't have it either. In World War I, or just after it, they referred to it as "shell shock"...and medical records or no (possibly due to stigma?), literature from the time period talks about it/describes it...

 

[anthony]

Yup... I'm currently reading an updated empirical data set on PTSD, and the beginning of it outlines that PTSD was technically present back in stone age... we just didn't call it PTSD and didn't have todays words for what was felt or occurred back then.

 

[Sweetpea76]

I'm always leery about any retrospective diagnosis, and I'm using that term as it pertains to diagnosing historical figures. They always seem to assume that the diseases and medical disorders that exist today existed the same way in the past. Presentism is a major bugaboo to trained historians, and is like a flashing light pointing out the hobbyists.