Psychological Trauma and Its Treatment in the Polio Epidemics

In this paper, I explore the kinds of psychological trauma experienced by polio patients in the mid-twentieth century in the United States. I argue that the trauma was the result of the experience of sudden paralysis, the conditions under which patients were treated, and the expectations for rehabilitation derived from the psychosocial context of the period. Psychiatric and psychological counseling in hospitals was only beginning to be offered in this period, and most polio patients received little or no counseling or assistance in dealing with their psychological problems. Contemporary psychological studies suggest that many polio patients suffered from psychological problems but that they were relatively mild. However, compared with the many studies of the physical problems of polio patients, there were relatively few studies of the psychological issues associated with the disease. The narratives and memoirs of polio survivors vividly testify to the psychological burden they experienced as patients during both the acute phase of the illness and during rehabilitation.