Between the Psyche and the Social: Masculinity, Subjectivity and the First World War Veteran

This article offers a critique of some recent work on gender, which, influenced by the linguistic turn, over-states the historical significance of identity. Drawing on the work of the First World War tank commander and later Kleinian psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion, the article offers some suggestions about what a history of masculinity in the First World War might look if emotional experience, rather than "identity," was at the centre of study. Focusing on two men, one an officer and Regular soldier, the other a rank-and-file Volunteer, the article explores the emotional impact of the war on the domestic lives of veterans. The war, it argues, drew men into relationships of care that had traditionally been women's domain; in the process creating both a crisis and an opportunity for subjectivity. Many men returned home after the war with practical and emotional capacities that challenged traditional ideals of the "soldier hero." Simultaneously, however, the widespread distress of veterans meant that women tended to be drawn back into traditional feminine roles, as nurses and mothers.