Synopses & Reviews
During the First World War physicians in France and in Germany saw their main professional and patriotic duty not only in guaranteeing the medical care of the military and civil population. But this immense destructive force on body and soul was also a large field of medical observation and experimentation. The physicians seized the singular opportunity to medically control the population and to diagnose their healthiness and sanity before, during and after the traumatic impacts of the war. It was in the self-assigned competence of the physicians to determine how the healthy and the sick parts of the population seemed to react to the overwhelming mechanical, acoustical and emotional effects of the war. What is the relationship between disease and war? Were there either degenerating or regenerating effects? Finally, how could the medical profession and the patients themselves contribute to a healthier and more vigorous nation-building for the present and coming generations?