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Doctor Rivers Analytical Essay

615 Words3 Pages

In Craiglockhart hospital shell-shock and war neurosis roam free through the halls, not only carried by the soldiers who served in France, but, by their beloved Doctor. Doctor Rivers showed various signs that he himself has some instability and a weakened mental health as he carries on through the hospital curing those who exhibited the signs of shell-shock. Doctor Rivers, silent and ready to listen, he listened to many horror stories, many tragedies, to help the soldiers overcome their deficiencies. Yet, no one was there to listen to Rivers, even if there was, he wouldn’t know where to begin. As Doctor Rivers helped overcome their mental illness’ you can’t help but to wonder how he continues his efforts to fix these soldiers, when he needs help fixing himself.
Fatigue, tremors, intense confusion, constant nightmares, impaired sighting and hearing. These are the main symptoms that help diagnose shell-shock. “It was often diagnosed when a soldier was unable to function and no obvious cause could be identified” (Jones). They refer the “obvious cause” as having physical injuries. A doctor who worked with these cases believed that these symptoms were created to repress the actual trauma that they felt during the war. The soldiers tried to repress or even split away from the memory of whatever traumatic thing …show more content…

As the article suggests Rivers stutter is a result of him trying to split away from his memories of his childhood, which creates his stutter. The soldiers even recognize that there is something that Rivers is suppressing. When Rivers told Billy Prior that it was odd that he didn’t have a stammer, since most mutes go from being silent to having a bad stammer, he replied, “It’s even more interesting that you do” (97). It’s very surprising that Rivers hasn’t used the techniques he uses to help his soldiers bring forth their repressed

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