Evening star., 1940-12-29
Military Psyehiatry
Sessions 10 Be Held
By SeIective Service
Designed to Bring
Uniformity in Fixing
Mental Qualifications
By CARTER BROOKE JONES.

In a Nationwide plan to OBTAIN
for the trained citizen Army of
100000 which Congress has au-
thorized men who fulfill the ancient
philosophers concept OF "a sound
mind in a sound body" series of
regional conferences on military
psychiatry will be held under the
auspices of the Selective Service
System.
The first conference, to be held
here January 2 and 3, was an
: nounced yesterday by C. A. DykStra,
director of selective service.
The conferences are designed to
bring about greater uniformity in
fixing the mental qualifications Of
selectees.
The first meeting will draw lead
ing psychiatriStS from the District,
Virginia, Maryland. West Virginia,
North Carolina and Delaware. In
announcing this conference, Mr..
Dykstra said:
This is the first great collective
effort of the Nations experts to
establish minimum mental stand
ards for men to be inducted into
our armed 10rCt0, a team OF in
structors, consisting of a psychiatrist
from the Army, Veterans Admins
tration and the SeleCtiVe Service
System will conduct courses and dis
cussions on recognizing and evaluat-
ing mental disorders among those
examined for service
Mapped BY Specialists.
These conferences were mapped at
a series of informal meetings held
from time to time at selective serv-
ice headquarters by specialists in
nervous and mental diseases from
the Army, the Navy and other Fed
eral departments and consultants
from several Eastern medical CEN
ters and leading institutions.
The psychiatriSts want to avoid
the laXity of mental examination
during the World War drafts. when
great many men afflicted with
serious personality disorders slipped
by the doctors and remained in
the service, a sizable portion later
to become public charges in vet
erans' neuro- -psychiatric hospitals
There is not so much danger,
medical officers point out, that cases
which would be classed legally or
medically as insanity" will pass
undetected-these usually are suf-
flciently obvious, though not al
ways-but it is the more subtle
forms of abnormal behavior with
which they are chiefly concerned
While men too unstable mentally
to make good soldiers do not form
such a relatively large percentage
of those called up under a con-
scrlptlon law, they cause trouble
out OF proportion to their numbers.
Must Warn Local Boards.
Many of those recruits who are
constantly in difficulty for breaking
military rules; the chronic grumb-
lers; the fomenters of minor mutt
nles-those, IN word, unable to
adjust themselves to army ife-are
often suffering from some psychic
maladJustment that will prevent
them from ever becoming efficient
soldiers, the doctors realize. The
only way the specialists know to
prevent the induction of such men is
to carry an educational campaign to
every community in The country. to
warn the local boards and their eX-
amining physicians and acuuaint
them with the symptoms of the per-
sonallty dlsorderS-the most prev
alent psychoses forms of insanity)
psycho-neuroses and other classes
OF abnormalities
Director Dykstra emphasized that
medical advisory board psychiatrists
IN every State wish to encourage
reference to them of every registrant
whose mental qualifications can be
questioned"
The first. psychiatric conference
will consist of five sessions. There
will be a morning and afternoon
session on Thursday at the Public
Health Building auditorium and an
evening conference at the Interior
Department auditorium. Morning
and afternoon meetings Friday will
be held at the Army Medical Center.
Walter Reed Hospital.
Dykstra to Open Session.
Mr.. Dykstra will open the first
session. which will bring a general
discussion of p5ychiatry and the
need Of applying it's principles to
selective service. Thursday evening
Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey. denutv
director of selective service, will pre-
side, and Paul v. McNutt. Federal
security administrator, will speak
on What We Expect of Psychiatrv
IN This National Defense Program"
III. James Stuart Plant, director of
The Essex County IN. J) Juvenile
Clinic. will discuss "The Psvchiatric
Challenge in Selective Service"
otner speakers will include DR.
LeWellyn Barker, noted former chief
OF medicine at the Johns Honkins
University; 1t. Col William G
Porter, U. S. A.; DR.. Martin Cooley
veterans Administration: DR.. Harry
Stack Sullivan of the William Alan.
son White Psychiatric Foundation.
DR.. Roscoe w. Hall, clinical director
OF st. Ellzabeth's Hospital; DR.. Alex
ar1der Simon, senior medical officer
OF st. Elizabeth's: DR.. Lauren Smith
physician in chief. Pennsylvania In
stitute; DR.. Spafford Ackerley. Uni
versity OF Louisville School of Medi-
cine; DR.. Dexter NJ Bullard. Chest
nut Lodge Sanitarium, and DR.. Win
fred Overholser. superintendent of
st. Elizabeth's Hospital.
Physicians examining prospective
tralnees for local draft boards in
this area will be invited to certain
OF the sessions.