From Shell Shock to PTSD - The Hidden Cost of War for Australian Soldiers

‘For the first time… the collective story of the tens of thousands of Australian soldiers who returned home with mental injuries… Their wounds were no less real because they were often hidden.’
— Major General John H. Pearn AO RFD, Former Surgeon-General, Australian Defence Force

‘A landmark contribution to understanding the human cost of Australia’s military history.’

Across more than a century of conflict, Australian soldiers have returned home carrying invisible wounds. From Gallipoli to the conflicts of the twenty-first century, what was once called ‘shell-shock’ or ‘war neurosis’ is now recognised as post-traumatic stress disorder, but its presence has remained constant.

In From Shell-Shock to PTSD, eminent military–medical historian Ian Howie-Willis draws on decades of research, extensive military and medical records, and a wide body of official inquiries to trace 125 years of psychological injury across the Australian Army. He reveals how trauma has been recognised, misunderstood, redefined and managed over time, often slowly, and sometimes at great human cost.

Set against the most recent national examinations of defence and veteran wellbeing and grounded in the lived experiences of soldiers and their families, this is both a definitive history and a timely reflection. It shows that while the language and treatments have evolved, the underlying reality has remained strikingly consistent.
As Australia continues to confront these challenges, one question endures. How can a nation prepare for war while reckoning with its lasting human toll?

‘We didn’t just lose him to war — we lived with its aftermath every day.’
‘Seventeen years of service… and all we were given at the end was a notebook and a sick husband.’
‘Each suicide sends ripples through families, friends and communities — hundreds of lives changed forever.’
From submissions to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, as featured in ‘Shining a Light’