Human thought, emotion, and behaviour are critical to why humans begin, fight, endure, and end wars. War and the Mind at IWM London is a free exhibition that asks visitors to rethink conflict through this psychological lens.
Alongside objects from IWM’s collections, the exhibition features groundbreaking research projects funded by UK Research and Innovation, in particular the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Visitors can find out more about each project and watch researchers talk about their work in relation to the exhibition’s psychological themes.
Find out which projects are featured and where they can be found within the exhibition.
War and the Mind is open between 27 September 2024 and 27 April 2025.
Training the Troops: British and Commonwealth Armies, 1939-1945
Megan Hamilton’s PhD is an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship with King’s College London and Imperial War Museums.
Her PhD explores how armies around the British Empire coordinated their training to fight more effectively during the Second World War. Megan is investigating how recruits from across Britain’s diverse empire were trained to think and act like soldiers.
She explores how training was synchronised and coordinated, and how vital lessons were learned and shared.
Visitors can see this project featured in the Starting Wars section of the exhibition.
War Stories: Composure and Discomposure in the Communication of British Veterans’ Experiences of the Falklands War
Dr John Beales completed his AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship with Keele University in partnership with IWM.
His thesis explored how British troops felt, and coped, during the Falklands Conflict. How was individual fear expressed and controlled? How did troops develop the resilience and stoicism to cope with hardship and threat?
Dr Beales investigated the selective nature of memory, and the ways veterans create a story of their experiences which changes over time. He unearthed experiences of ‘composure’ – a feeling of psychological wellbeing when someone is satisfied with their story of significant life events – and discomposure, which reflects the opposite.
This project is featured in the Fighting Wars section of the exhibition.
Droned Life: Data, Narrative, and the Aesthetics of Worldmaking
This multi-disciplinary UKRI-funded fellowship was led by Dr Beryl Pong, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. It was hosted by the Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge where Dr Beryl Pong runs the Centre for Drones and Culture. She is also an IWM Associate.
Drones are now an integral part of warfare. But what are their psychological effects? This was a key focus in in this multi-disciplinary project exploring the impact of drones upon war, humanitarianism, the environment and ecology, and in art.
The project considered the politics and ethics of drone use, and how they make us see our world differently. Dr Pong is particularly interested in the relationship between drones and their human operators.
This project is featured in the Fighting Wars section of the exhibition.
‘To Dream as I Have Never Dreamed Before’: Dreams in First World War Literature and Culture
Dr Chloe Nahum undertook an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship with the University of Oxford and Imperial War Museums.
The social and cultural importance of soldiers’ dreams is the focus of Dr Chloe Nahum’s research. Her thesis examined vivid accounts of dreams expressed in diaries, letters, newspapers, posters, postcards, and oral histories from both the fighting and home fronts during the First World War.
Dr Nahum explored how the war influenced people’s minds while they were sleeping. Her research also uniquely unearthed myriad ways dreams were interpreted during the war – as protective good omens or ominous premonitions.
Visitors can find out more about this project in the Fighting Wars section of War and the Mind.
Strange Meetings: Enemy Encounters 1800 – 2020
This AHRC-funded fellowship project was a partnership between Cardiff University and the Museum of Military Medicine and Arts in Health charity Re-Live. Professor Holly Furneaux is a specialist in English literature and culture at Cardiff University. Dr Matilda Greig is now a Historian at the National Army Museum.
How do attitudes towards the enemy change when they come face to face in war? This project led Professor Holly Furneaux and Dr Matilda Greig to explore interaction with the enemy in conflicts across time. They unearthed many instances of intimacy with the enemy, from truces, treatment of the wounded, and care for prisoners of war. They interrogated military and civilian attitudes towards the enemy, and how war’s reality diluted or inflamed hatred of the opposing side. They delved into ideas of otherness and familiarity, and war’s many dividing lines – from nation, race, religion and culture.
The research is featured in the Fighting Wars section of the exhibition.
Rediscovering the Bethlem Royal Hospital during the First World War
Rachel Ditchfield is undertaking an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship between the University of Liverpool and Imperial War Museums.
The history of psychiatric illness during the First World War has often focused on ‘shell shock’ in the military services. Rachel Ditchfield’s ongoing PhD will examine the often-overlooked experiences of civilians on the home front who experienced mental illness.
Her focus is Britain’s most famous psychiatric hospital, the Bethlem Royal Hospital. Rachel’s PhD explores how the First World War impacted the mental health of its patients, and their care and treatment. She will also examine the building itself - now home to IWM London - and its relationship to patients and staff.
A film featuring this project is part of the Ending Wars section of the exhibition.