# Can someone go blind from "shell shock"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404 "2023-07-23T01:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404/1 "2023-07-23T01:41:48Z")
I’ve been reading about a WWI veteran from Saskatchewan who went blind due to injuries in a battle. The cause of the blindness is reported in one contemporary account as “shell shock”. I’ve seen one picture of him, I think post-war, in which he doesn’t show signs of physical injury to his eyes. Normally I think of “shell shock” as what we now call PTSD, but I wondered in this case if the injury to his eyes was due to the shock wave from an exploding shell. Is that possible? The eyes are pretty sensitive organs, and I wonder if a shock wave could damage them to the point of blindness, even if the eyes appear intact on casual glance? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404/2 "2023-07-23T01:48:20Z")
There is the Conversion Disorder formerly known as Hysterical blindness. That is a possible cause tied to “shell shock”. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404/3 "2023-07-23T02:12:52Z")
Very possible. [Shell shock - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20reaction%20to,heart%2C%20battle%20fatigue%2C%20operational%20exhaustion), bolding mine: > The term “shell shock” was coined during the [Battle of Loos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Loos) to reflect an assumed link between the symptoms and the effects of explosions from artillery shells.[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock#cite_note-6) The term was first published in 1915 in an article in _[The Lancet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lancet)_ by [Charles Myers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Samuel_Myers). Some 60–80% of shell shock cases displayed acute [neurasthenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurasthenia), **while 10% displayed what would now be termed symptoms of [conversion disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_disorder), including [mutism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutism) and [fugue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state).** Another possibility is that in the contemporary accounts you are reading they actually believed the shock of shell explosions had physically caused blindness; more than just not understanding PTSD at the time, shell shock was coined as a term during WWI and was a new phenomenon and very poorly understood. There was a school of thought that it was actually caused by well, literal physical shock from shelling. Also from wiki: > The number of shell shock cases grew during 1915 and 1916 but it remained poorly understood medically and psychologically. Some physicians held the view that it was a result of hidden physical damage to the brain, with the shock waves from bursting shells creating a cerebral [lesion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesion) that caused the symptoms and could potentially prove fatal. Another explanation was that shell shock resulted from poisoning by the [carbon monoxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide) formed by explosions. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404/4 "2023-07-23T02:21:49Z")
Private Albert Blithe went blind during the fierce battle of Carentan shortly after D-day in WWII. At that time, they called it “hysterical blindness” as @What_Exit posted. Blithe was featured in the HBO series Band of Brothers. While the hysterical blindness incident did happen, the HBO series stated at the end of the episode that Blithe died of his wounds after being shot in the neck by a sniper. In reality, Blithe survived and went on to serve in Korea. While the ending of the show was factually incorrect, the hysterical blindness portion of the show was accurate, and was caused by the stress of battle and not by the shock wave from an explosion. As already stated, hysterical blindness is now referred to as a type of conversion disorder: > **[Conversion disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_disorder)** > > Conversion disorder (CD), or functional neurologic symptom disorder, is a diagnostic category used in some psychiatric classification systems. It is sometimes applied to patients who present with neurological symptoms, such as numbness, blindness, paralysis, or fits, which are not consistent with a well-established organic cause, which cause significant distress, and can be traced back to a psychological trigger. It is thought that these symptoms arise in response to stressful situations affectin... Shell Shock usually refers to what we now call PTSD. > **[Shell shock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock)** > > Shell shock is a word that originated during World War I to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that many soldiers experienced during the war, before PTSD was officially recognized. It is a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness, which could manifest as panic, fear, flight, or an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk. > During the war, the concept of shell shock was poorly defined. Cases of "shell shock" could be interpre... That said, there has been some controversy over whether or not the shock wave from an explosion can cause blindness. The common theory is that the blindness results from brain injury, but newer studies have found that the shock wave from an explosion can cause damage to the optic nerve at pressure levels much lower than what had previously been expected. > **[Shock wave from explosives causes significant eye damage](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140630164508.htm)** > > The unseen effects that can occur as a result of a blast injury have been studied by researchers who have concluded that the shock wave alone created by an IED, even in the absence of shrapnel or other particles, can cause significant damage to the... So it is possible that the injury to the veteran from Saskathewan was caused by the shock wave from a shell. But then it’s also possible that it was hysterical blindness (conversion disorder). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-go-blind-from-shell-shock/987404/5 "2023-10-02T03:30:57Z")
For those who are interested, the wiki article on this soldier is in the “Did You Know?” section of Wikipedia today (October 2 by Wiki-calendar).