杏吧原创

After the Great Fire of London, Samuel Pepys seems to have suffered
post-traumatic stress syndrome without realising it. This book argues a thesis
that鈥檚 useful but rather obvious: that post-traumatic stress was 鈥渋nvented鈥� to
make sense of the experiences of Vietnam veterans. Before that, survivors were
expected to pull their socks up and get on with their lives. The Harmony of
Illusions by Allan Young (Princeton, 拢28/$35, ISBN 0 691 03352 8)
accepts that the suffering involved is real, but adds that the condition itself
was the creation of particular theories of mind and memory. Good historical
details.