The interplay between the characters portrayed in Regeneration illustrates the complex relationships between doctor and patient, officer and enlisted, and father and son. And, while Barker expertly stages these complex relationships against the horrifying backdrop of the First Great War, she fails to explore the dominant political, medical, and social attitudes surrounding war neurosis during this period. In this paper, I will demonstrate that Pat Barker’s Regeneration is a failed attempt to portray the psychological effects WWI had on soldiers and misrepresents the inhumane treatments inflicted upon those suffering from war neurosis during the period the author purports to
The interplay between the characters portrayed in Regeneration illustrates the complex relationships between doctor and patient, officer and enlisted, and father and son. And, while Barker expertly stages these complex relationships against the horrifying backdrop of the First Great War, she fails to explore the dominant political, medical, and social attitudes surrounding war neurosis during this period. In this paper, I will demonstrate that Pat Barker’s Regeneration is a failed attempt to portray the psychological effects WWI had on soldiers and misrepresents the inhumane treatments inflicted upon those suffering from war neurosis during the period the author purports to