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Cambridge University, Cambridge: Shell Shock

The British Army was overwhelmed by 80,000 shell shock victims in World War One and struggled to cope with the waves of psychiatric casualties caused by this very industrialised war.

Charles Myers, from Cambridge University, was the first to research and highlight the condition and to recommend specialist treatment for its misunderstood victims. He campaigned to have victims whose shell shock had led to desertion or cowardice to be saved from the firing squads.

He went on after the war to establish the first Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in Cambridge.

Location: Department of Psychology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB
Image: Charles Myers, courtesy of Prof John Mollon at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge

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