Some guy went nuts in my hometown and slapped a clerk over face mask rules. People have been under a bit of stress for a long time and some cannot take it.
Do we have any information on mental illness amongst civilians back home during WWII? Tough question as the whole idea of mental illness was different then. Records are probably hard to find.
But did domestic abuse, suicide and other self-harm go in safe areas back home during the war? Are there any books on the subject?
The worst I know of is a fellow’s letter to the editor about not having sugar for grapefruit and my Grandmother’s letter ripping him a new one.
What leads you to believe this was due to mental illness, as opposed to just being an asshole?
The divorce rate in the United States was actually highest in the late 1940s, when multitudes of the hasty wartime marriages ended when the soldiers came home, for any number of reasons. Splitting was less complicated than it might otherwise have been, because a large percentage of those marriages were childless.
Maybe this was also a factor?
Perhaps I would like to think most healthy people do not attack others in the shops.
Thank you all for looking at my question.
Hard to find stats for that era on the home front.
Crime however flourished despite the mythology that everyone was selflessly pulling together.
In the U.S., profiteering, labor unrest and crimes like forging to obtain restricted supplies were not uncommon.
You would think the stress of harder living, uncertainty, separation from family members and worries about relatives in combat would have increased incidence of mental disorders, though as noted, diagnosis and classification were less rigorous then.