War and the psyche

Lt J P D Hewatt, 'Shell Shock', 1917

Readers who consult the online Archives and Manuscripts sources guides may have noticed some recent changes to the guides on war, medicine and health. In order to streamline these somewhat, the content has been rearranged, into War, Medicine, and Health: general and guides relating specifically to World War I and World War II, and a significant amount of material relating to psychiatric and psychological issues to do with warfare pulled out to create a new guide, War, Psychiatry and Psychology.

We already held some important materials on these latter subjects, such as the observations by Charles McMoran Wilson, later Lord Moran, of the new phenomenon of 'shell shock' on the Western Front during the Great War, material in the Bowlby and Winnicott papers on the effects of wartime evacuation on children, records of S H Foulkes' work with the 'Northfield Experiment' during the Second World War. However, a number of more recent acquisitions, such as the papers of H V Dicks relating to his involvement in 'de-Nazification' of Germany after the war and his writings on the psychology of totalitarianism, and several collections of papers of individual psychologists received along with the records of the British Psychological Society have additionally developed our strengths in this area and this is reflected in the creation of  this new guide.

This turns out to be especially timely given the news of this forthcoming event, Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism, bringing together historians, social theorists and psychoanalysts to explore the impact of the Second World War and totalitarianism on psychoanalysis, and of psychoanalysis on the understanding of the war and totalitarian systems. Organised under the auspices of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism (Birkbeck, University of London), Birkbeck College, University of London, and the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies of the University of Essex, it will take place in the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, 21-22 September 2012.

Pot Shot in the Middle Ages

This doorway takes you through to the hidden garden of Staple Inn. For protection the gates would be closed and undesirables would be shot through the small grill.

I am away on holiday hoping posts are appearing for you.  I've had several problems since blogger did their recent upgrade. Has anyone else experienced problems? Hopefully they will sort themselves out while I'm away.  If not I apologise and will try and sort them out when i get back.

Remembering and Honouring the Children of War

In St Paul's Cathedral below the dome is this art installation created by Ted Harrison to draw attention and remember children who have been conscripted and fought in adult wars.
At ground level the work appears as a white disc onto which poppies appear to have been scattered at random. From above the poppies form an image of three armed children. A boy from the first world war, a boy from recent conflicts in Africa and a girl from Asia.

Although Britain no longer sends anyone under the age of 18 to war many other countries do. An estimated 250,000 children worldwide are currently under military orders. Some as young as 9 years old. One third are girls.

Spitfire

A full size replica spitfire outside the Churchill Museum as part of the 70th commemoration of the Battle of Britain. On the pavement around it you are encouraged to draw planes in pavement chalk.
The display will be there until 31 August. On Friday 20th at 15:52 Churchill's famous speech ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ will be read. Around the same time there will be a fly-past over Whitehall of spitfires and hurricanes.

Berlin Wall

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 several panels were given to various institutions around the world.
These three panels, weighing 9 tonnes, were presented to the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London.