Siegfried Sassoon - First World War Poet | Biographical Documentary

Siegfried Sassoon was a groundbreaking poetic voice who detailed the horrors of the First World War trenches like no one else. But did he have shell shock?

In this history documentary, we will look in depth behind the films "Benediction" and "Regeneration" to focus on Sassoon's troubled mental health. We will hear how he was decorated for conspicuous gallantry on the Western Front and injured several times, before publicly protesting about the war. The Army had to choose between court martialling him or sending him to a mental hospital to be treated for shell shock.

Find out what happened during his stay at Craiglockhart Hospital – was he silenced, was he cured, was there ever anything wrong with him?

Hear my views on what diagnosis he might be given if he were to be treated for his mental health today.

As always I’d love to hear your comments and any suggestions for new videos.

Warning: This video contains graphic historical medical images and terminology.

Books:
Pat Barker (1991): Regeneration, Viking Press.
Siegfried Sassoon (1936) Sherston’s Progress, Faber & Faber.
Siegfried Sassoon (1929) Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man, Faber & Faber.
Siegfried Sassoon (1930) Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, Faber & Faber.

Academic References:
Bourke, J. (2000). Effeminacy, Ethnicity and the End of Trauma: The Sufferings of ‘Shell-Shocked’Men in Great Britain and Ireland, 1914–39. Journal of Contemporary History, 35(1), 57-69.
Jones, E., & Wessely, S. (2005). Shell shock to PTSD: Military psychiatry from 1900 to the Gulf War. Psychology Press.
Jones, E., & Wessely, S. (2014). Battle for the mind: World War 1 and the birth of military psychiatry. The Lancet, 384(9955), 1708-1714.
Linden, S. C., Jones, E., & Lees, A. J. (2013). Shell shock at Queen Square: Lewis Yealland 100 years on. Brain, 136(6), 1976-1988.
Norgate, P. (1987). Shell-shock and Poetry: Wilfred Owen at Craiglockhart Hospital. English, 36(154), 1-35.
Schaupp, A. C. (2018). Repression and articulation of war experience: a study of the literary culture of Craiglockhart War Hospital. PhD Thesis, Edinburgh University.
Shay, J. (2014). Moral injury. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 31(2), 182.
Webb, T. E. (2006). ‘Dottyville’—Craiglockhart War Hospital and shell-shock treatment in the First World War. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 99(7), 342-346.
Wessely, S. (2006). The life and death of Private Harry Farr. The RUSI Journal, 151(5), 60-64.

Copyright Disclaimer
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.

Images
Wikimedia Commons
Imperial War Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Public Domain or used on Fair Use basis for education purpose

Music
Edward Elgar: Salut d’amor: Emanuel Salvador (violin) & Pau Casan (piano)
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 via IMSLP.

Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations, Nimrod: DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Barbara Schubert (conductor). Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0

Edward Elgar: Serenade for Strings: United States Army Strings.
Public domain via Wikimedia commons


Video produced by Professor Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.