At the end of the Second World War, psychiatrists in Yugoslavia diagnosed a new condition they termed ‘partisan hysteria’. This affected resistance fighters from the Communist Party, who were considered war heroes, but were experiencing violent seizures that made them seem troubled and highly disruptive to the social order. As Ana Antic’s research shows, these psychiatrists didn’t ask what wartime trauma might have induced this ‘hysteria’. Instead, they viewed it as evidence that a generation of young working-class soldiers were unfit for their new political roles in a revolutionary socialist society. The medical discourse was shaped by contemporary politics and political anxieties about revolutionary change.
"I discovered the psychiatric patient files, which were interviews with patients, and I realized they provided a unique historical insight into some of the most important research questions I had," says Ana Antic, a professor of European history, who researches the history of psychiatry and psychology. Read more about Ana on the Dan David Prize website: [ Ссылка ]
