in the 40s they thought asthma was psychosomatic. that must have pissed bucky off to no end. i bet when he finds out that we now know it’s physical, he tracks down the doctor to the retirement home he lives at and says, “i fucking told you it wasn’t psychosomatic, you shitstain.” and the nurse comes over like “sir, i’m going to have to ask you to stop harassing my patient”
Yep, was talking about this with my partner the other day, and I thought that maybe the confusion came about when psychotherapy took off and they conflated panic attacks (trouble breathing, heart racing, dying feelings) with asthma (same, but with occasional actual dying).
So, yeah, when Steve is told ‘you’d be turned down on your asthma alone’, it’s not because they thought he literally had a chest condition that could kill him in the field, it’s because they thought he had a mental illness, akin to hysteria, and they didn’t want hysterics in their theatre of war.
knitting in the dark 