Landscapes of Trauma

I have been writing this book now for about a year and a half. I wish I had the freedom to just sit and write rather than have to do it on top of a full time job, but knowing how little money authors earn I think I will stick with the full time job for the moment.

This book is – in a way – a follow up from Memory, War and Trauma (CUP, 2010), taking the exploration of the impact of war in a somewhat different direction, but retaining the importance of using a breadth of methods to try and understand war, to draw on a range of perspectives and disciplines to further develop the psychology of war, and what happens to people who go through war.

The book has an unusual perspective in that it uses data from a variety of sources, not just psychological methods, but historical data, extracts from journals and diaries, and even novels. I do not claim that psychologists have a monopoly of understanding human thought, feeling and behaviour, so no doubt I will upset many psychologists. The other unusual perspective is that I claim that we can better understand battle by following in the footsteps of those who fought, that is, exploring the battlefields of the past, whether by foot or by car.

For instance, there is a chapter on the Battle of Sedan. A tour of the battle area is given. This is one that it is better to have the use of a car due to the size of the battlefield, though there are also good places to walk. The key data is provided by Emile Zola’s Le Debacle, the penultimate Rougon Macquart novel, set during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Zola conducted his research for the novel by exploring the sites of the battle (as I do in the chapter) and by interviewing participants and spectators – the book came out around 20 years after the end of the war. Zola is a good observer of human behaviour, and drawing on quotations from the book we can begin to understand something of the experiences of the French soldiers who took part in the battle immediately after having marched for several weeks backwards and forwards around eastern France, unable to find the enemy.

For the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 I draw on the accounts written by the foot soldiers who took part, who describe their experiences of the battle in some detail. The battle site just south of the city is very similar to how it would have been in 1812, and is simple to walk or drive around.

I do draw on psychological data for the Battle of Normandy, as I personally interviewed 100s of participants of that battle. The problem here is the scale of the battle, with a width of around 100km and a variable depth up to 60km it is impossible to explore the whole battlefield, so I have focused on the area where the British paratroopers of the 6th Armoured Division landed on the night of 5/6th June.

I have attempted to go back in time as far as the 100 Years’ War, with the battles of Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415) but it is very difficult to get any psychological understanding of these battles. It is in these cases that I start to explore the modern interpretation of the battles, looking at what we have put up as memorials, or how the different sides interpret the battles and how they were fought.

It all adds to the mix of understanding the landscapes of trauma.

I have anotehr 6 months or so before the book is due to be submitted. Most of it is written in some form or other, though mostly very messy. I will return to the topic later for updates.