ABSTRACT
The history of science is tangled with philosophical studies of nature, the mind, and the origins of what became the mental health professions. A review of that history leads to the late nineteenth century when spectacle-making of mental health patients foretold the post-World War I construction of shellshock. Images of shell-shocked veterans found its way into lost-war propaganda that fueled German fascism. In years leading to the Second World War, that imagery grounded betrayal narratives for national defeat that lured millions of Europeans down a path of vindictiveness with apocalyptic consequences.
