“Hysterical symptoms such as mutism, sensory loss, or motor paralysis were treated with electric shocks. Patients were excoriated for their laziness and cowardice. Those who exhibited the “hideous enemy of negativism” were threatened with court martial. In one case, Yealland reported treating a mute patient by strapping him into a chair and applying electric shocks to his throat. The treatment went on without respite for hours, until the patient finally spoke. As the shocks were applied, Yealland exhorted the patient to “remember, you must behave as the hero I expect you to be. . . . A man who has gone through so many battles should have better control of himself.”

This passage describes the methods of Dr. Lewis Yealland, a Canadian-born neurologist who practiced at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in London during World War I. 

Based on your prompt and supporting details:

• The Treatment: Yealland utilized "faradization" (electric shocks) to treat "hysterical" symptoms such as mutism, functional blindness, and paralysis, arguing that these were caused by a lack of discipline rather than war trauma.
• The Specific Case: In his 1918 book Hysterical Disorders of Warfare, Yealland described treating a mute soldier by strapping him into a chair, inserting a mouth gag, and applying electrodes to his throat while telling him "you must behave as becomes the hero I expect you to be... A man who has gone through so many battles should have better control of himself".
• The Goal: Yealland aimed to force soldiers back into the trenches as quickly as possible by making their symptoms "a dreary and unprofitable business" often threatening them with court-martial if they showed "negativism" (resistance to treatment).

This passage vividly illustrates one of the darkest chapters in the history of traumatic stress: the treatment of "Shell Shock" (now recognized as PTSD) during World War I. The methods described, particularly those of Lewis Yealland, represent a "disciplinary" approach to mental health that prioritized military efficiency over patient empathy.

Here is a breakdown of the context and the medical philosophy behind these harrowing practices.

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The "Disciplinary" Model

During WWI, the British military was overwhelmed by soldiers exhibiting "hysterical" symptoms—physical ailments like blindness, paralysis, or mutism that had no apparent physical cause. Because the military needed men back at the front, doctors like Yealland employed Faradism (the application of electric currents).

• The Goal: To make the treatment more painful or terrifying than the trauma of the trenches, effectively "forcing" the patient back into a state of physical function.

• The Logic: Doctors often viewed these symptoms as a form of "unconscious malingering" or cowardice. By framing recovery as a matter of "willpower" and "manliness," they treated psychological trauma as a moral failing.

The "Hero" Narrative

Yealland’s exhortation—“behave as the hero I expect you to be”—highlights the toxic intersection of Victorian gender roles and military necessity. By equating mental health with "control" and "heroism," patients were trapped: they could either endure the torture of the "cure" or face the shame (and potential execution) of a court-martial for cowardice.

Gemini