According to Pedersen, “psychological warfare is a devastatingly effective central feature in war”. This is evident in decolonization as terror, mass executions, disappearances, torture, and rape are the typical ways that French military forces seek to inflict violence. Although these types of violence are physical, they are more importantly psychological as these cause lasting trauma in the form of mental disorders on both sides of the conflict. Fanon elaborates upon in these in the “Colonial War and Mental Disorders” chapter of The Wretched of the Earth. For example, Fanon’s Case No. 1 in Series A is characterized by “impotence in an Algerian following the rape of his wife”. In this case, he was forced to abandon his unit and seek refuge elsewhere, causing an extensive manhunt performed by French military officials. Unable to find him, the French tortured and raped his wife. This case shows how even the defenseless inhabitants of the nation are exploited in order to advance a military agenda, while also exhibiting how psychological trauma has manifested as guilt for the Algerian patient, as he feels guilty and responsible for the damage done to his family.

Despite the mass amounts of terror that the French had inflicted to protect their resources, they too, became victim to psychological trauma as a result of the war. For example, in Fanon’s Case No. 5, “a European police inspector tortures his wife and children”. The European police officer has lost the ability to appropriately react to confrontation, as it is acceptable to inflict violence in a case where he is confronted by an Algerian. Even at home, he has “a constant desire to give everyone a beating” and acts on this desire by inflicting violence on his wife and young children. Pederson explains that the long-term effects of war and its atrocities exhibit a direct correlation between the experience of direct trauma and its symptoms with anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and chronic PTSD.

Phenomenologically, these resulting emotional states are considered normal responses to adverse stressors, thus undermining Fanon’s argument that violence is a necessary evil. Freuds ideas are also expressed in Pederson’s article to account for hysterical attacks as a result from trauma. The conditions that result from war, and in this case the decolonization of Algeria from France, are classified as “an epidemic of war neuroses.” A nation plagued by political oppression and physical violence is now plagued by an epidemic of psychological trauma. The Algerians abandoned their mental and emotional health for the hope of a better future of the nation, which subverts their desire for a flourishing nation. The traumatized Algerians will face an equally difficult struggle repair a politically, economically, and psychologically damaged nation.
