During world war two, psychology was used as a method to of war and also to treat the soldiers and civilians that are traumatized emotionally and mentally.
The psychological warfare was used to demoralize the opponent by feeding the pre-existing fear of the enemy. When the fear in the enemy force increases they will tend to retreat and sometimes this ends the war before it begins. The U.S. Department of Defense has defined psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as:"The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives."
Following are the some examples of use of propaganda during world war two. Adolf Hitler was one of the first to use the advancement of communication technology which was a microphone at that time to exaggerate his presence and make him look like a good. This eventually influenced the thinking of the Germans to follow him, and which it eventually led them to a destructive pathway. Sir Winston Churchill made similar use of radio for propaganda from the Allied side. Axis Sally was a famous female radio personality during world war two. She was a propagandist for the allied troop. Her most infamous broadcast was made on May 11, 1944, prior to the "D-Day" invasion of Normandy, France. She portrayed an American mother who dreamed that her son had been killed in the English Channel. An announcer's voice made the message clear: "The D of D-Day stands for doom… disaster… death… defeat… Dunkerque or Dieppe." After the war she was captured and charged with ten counts of treason and tried for eight and late she was only convicted with one. She was sentenced from 10 to 30 years and died of natural causes.
During world war two women suffered tremendous psychological effect as they were often the victim of rape. They were war rape victim which is committed by the soldiers or the civilians. Women were also forced into prostitution and sexual slavery as in the case of the Japanese soldiers. I still remember the stories told by my grandmother, in order to save themselves from being raped young women are made to look ugly by making their faces look black by putting coal on their faces. These young women andtheir families were constantly in fear for their safety and some of the rape victims were killed at the end or they killed themselves.
Holocaust victims are generally the Jews. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) states: “The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. The Nazis also targeted the Poles, Romanians, mentally ill and physically disabled people. These people were killed brutally and these event left a deep scar on the victims that until today the survivors and their family member could not erase it from their memory.
These above are some of the psychological effect experienced by the civilians and the following are the effect on the soldiers. Most of the war veterans experience post-traumaticstress disorder. This is due to the events that took place during the war. Symptoms of the disorder will be irritability anger outburst and difficulty in concentrating .They tend to re-experience the events in the form of flashbacks and nightmare. Patients that suffer from PTSD will be avoiding the events that remind them of the war. They will also start to have lack of interest in social activity and detach themselves from the society. PTSD if left untreated will lead to suicidal thoughts which are very dangerous to the victims. The more war a soldier experience the higher the risk that he is going t suffer PTSD.
In a nutshell war has tormented people emotionally and mentally. Up to today we still can see our grandparents feeling sad each time they talk about world war two. The bright side to the war is that it has brought steep development in the area of psychology. Psychology was developed in the early 19th century and later it got boost up during world war one and world war two stands as a watershed in its development. World war two mobilized the cooperation of clinical and experiment psychology. This later have had helped in the selection of the soldiers and treating the patients who are suffering from any psychological illness.
Reference:
"Non-Jewish victims of Nazism," Encyclopedia Britannica.
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