And Carlin was wrong on that account. The change of the words used to describe this psychological phenomemon isn't a reflection of trying to "soften things up", it's a reflection of changing understanding of the issue.RobbyB1982 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:11 pm George Carlin had a whole bit about how language gets softened and changed over time to hide the bad stuff.
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It was thought at first, that the issue is caused literally by the shock of the explosion of shells near the soldier in question, literally the soldier being shook by the pressure of the explosion, it being kind of a hefty concussion.
Lateron it was realized, that this issue expands to people who weren't near any larger explosions at the time the issue began to show, but that it generally extended to people who were in battle for longer periods of time, hence the term "battle fatigue".
The improvements in psychology during the period soon helped to realize, that it isn't just extending to people who are in combat either, but that people who are under psychological distress for longer periods in time, show the same symptoms and soon after, that the cause for the psychological distress doesn't even need to happen during an extended period of time, but that a single event can cause long-term stress that the subject can crack under, due to a continued mental inability to deal with said stress.
PTSD as a term is the result of long chain of improving understanding of a psychological issue, nothing more, nothing less and ironically enough given the point that Carlin tries to make, "shell shock" and "battle fatigue" are actually the words that dismiss the issue as temporary and localized and thus the "softened words".
