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Introduction:

Shock is a word of French origin that means a collision. It refers to a violent event 
that shakes up a person. In psychiatry, a shock is mental reaction to a traumatic 
event such as an accident, a very frightening or tragic situation. Such event may 
cause an acute stress reaction whereby a great amount of stress hormones are 
released by the action of the brain. These will prepare the person to flee or fight and 
can be useful if you suddenly meet a lion in the bush &ndash; but if a shock is very severe it 
may paralyze you so you become disoriented and even unable to remember what is 
happening because the brain goes into an emergency mode and do not function in a 
rational way. A severe mental shock may be deadly for people with heart problems 
who may suffer acute heart attack but even an otherwise healthy person may not 
survive a very severe shock. 
 
After World War I, where soldiers endured horrible battles in the trenches of Europe 
it was observed that a great many soldiers suffered mental problems. They had 
trouble relating to other people, to concentrate, to control anger, to sleep and to 
function normally. Doctors at the time called this condition &ldquo;Shell Shock&rdquo; referring 
to the fact that many soldiers had endured shelling with bombs that killed people 
around them. Soldiers and civilians continue to suffer the same trauma in the many 
wars fought the world over. Today the condition is called PTSD for (Post-Traumatic 
Stress Disorder). This medical abbreviation sounds less menacing than &ldquo;shell shock&rdquo; 
and is therefore preferred by military officials who do not like people to understand 
the real horrors of war. 
 
Shock is in several other contexts. Since the 1990s, &ldquo;Shock and Awe&rdquo; has been used 
by the US military to describe a tactic whereby you attack an enemy with such speed 
and ferocity that his defenses become paralyzed. 
 
The Canadian journalist, Naomi Klein, has used the term Shock Doctrine. She 
describes its many aspects in a very thorough study. By shock doctrine she means 
the use of real or a perceived violent event or threat of violence as shock that enables 
those in power to get things their way. In particular, she explains how shocks since 
the 1970s, have been used to introduce neo-liberal economic policies around the 
world. She go through many examples where a country or government has been 
forced to open its borders and economies to multinational companies, to privatize 
industries, to limit the rights of workers, to lower wages, to cut social services and to 
increase the gap between rich and poor. 
 
The shock is thus a method whereby globalized capitalism strengthens its grip on 
economic resources.

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