Flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder: the genesis of a 20th-century diagnosis. National Institutes of Health (.gov)
When researchers examined medical records of UK servicemen from the Boer War and World Wars I and II, they found that flashbacks were virtually non-existent . Instead, soldiers then expressed trauma through physical symptoms (somatization) like tremors or "effort syndrome". Flashbacks! Evolution!
It wasn't until the Vietnam War era and the 1980 inclusion of PTSD in the DSM-III that the flashback became the "hallmark" symptom we recognize today—defined by a vivid, sensory "here-and-now" reliving of events. It wasn't until the Vietnam War era and
The term "flashback" was originally coined in the 1960s to describe the recurring visual hallucinations experienced by LSD users . Key Insights from the Paper If you're interested
This paper explores the of the flashback as a clinical concept, arguing it is a "culture-bound" symptom rather than a universal human reaction to trauma. Key Insights from the Paper
If you're interested in the or modern clinical definitions, check out these papers: Flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder - PubMed