Submitted by Administrator on Thu, 05/06/2014 - 06:58
The First World War centenary is being commemorated by the BBC through the 
broadcast of documentaries, dramas, and news pieces. At the weekend a news feature remembering an important contribution made by Charles Myers was aired.
While working as a volunteer doctor at the front line in France, Charles Myers observed in his patients the symptoms of what is now recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder, and which he termed shell shock. He published his findings in The Lancet in his paper:
A contribution to the study of shell shock: being an account of three cases of loss of memory, vision, smell, and taste, admitted into the Duchess of Westminster's War Hospital, Le Touquet.
The Lancet, 185 (4772), 316-320 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(00)52916-X.
Charles Myers played a central role in the establishment of psychology as an academic discipline at Cambridge. The construction of Cambridge's first purpose-built Psychological Laboratory, which was formally opened by the Vice-Chancellor on May 15, 1913, was largely funded by Myers and his family. Although the University appointed Myers as Director of the Psychological Laboratory on June 6, 1912, he experienced great difficulty in persuading the University to make a financial commitment to this new discipline.
The Department, which struggled into existence through the strenuous efforts of Charles Myers, is today a world leader in psychological research and teaching.
Related links
Watch the BBC news feature about Charles Myers.
View the BBC's schedule of World War I events and programmes.
Read an account of the opening of the Psychological Laboratory.
Read about the centenary of an historic moment in the establishment of psychology at Cambridge.