Carry On . . . We're British
We have become much more conscious these days of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Occasionally we find ourselves wondering how previous generations of human beings, many suffering the depredations and privations of war, coped.
It would appear that when a society as a whole suffers, the ability to cope through the immediate trauma, and survive the subsequent PTSD is enhanced considerably.
The impact upon people in England during the Blitz and subsequent war privation is instructive in this regard. It would appear that very few suffered PTSD--yet by modern reckoning they should have. Consider the account by Robert Tombs of the actual experience of the general populace in Britain during WWII.
. . . for most people the reality [of the Blitz] was less than the expectation: "One is relieved to find how little bombs can do as compared with the mental picture one had"; "If anyone had told me I could have felt so unconcerned when an alert--or guns--sounded, I would not have believed it." Some people felt bravado, even exhilaration, at surviving and keeping their nerve: "Feeling indescribably happy and triumphant . . . 'I've been bombed--me!' " A Southampton librarian "enjoyed the raid . . . I felt keyed up and kind of happy like when you're pretty drunk. I met some pals after the raid . . . and made a party of it it." . . . .
