Evening star., 1940-07-23

Note0o0k OF Sclence TfoQSeS
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.
A terrifying sense Of insecurity aflicts
al Of US.
A storm is upon US that has broken
our lives away from the secure moor.
ings Of the past and one after another
the landmarks we have known vanish In
the fog Of physical and economic inse-
curity through which We are being
tossed into an unknown future.
The United States is experiencing .
taste Of the war nerves which Great
Britain and FRANCE have known for the
past two or three years. There Is evi-
dence on every hand Of the mental and
spiritual confusion Of the people. We
are prey. more than ever before, to IRA
tional behavior unconsciously motivated
as we grope In the fog and the dark.
This constitutes challenge to the
small body Of men and women in the
Nation who are experts in human be-
havior-the psychiatrists. 1t is q chal-
lenge which is being taken up by the
William A. White Psychiatric Founda-
ton, established here in memory of the
late superintendent Of st. Elizabeth's
Hospital, and composed Of some OF the
foremost mind specialists in the country.
A psychiatrist, unfortunately, has
come to be looked upon as physician
who treats crazy people. This is the
way he earns his living, but it is far
from the exclusive or even major func-
ton of the science whose discipline he
follows Its chief aim is to discover the
causes and effects that underlie and
determine history and, having found
them, to apply these natural laws to
prevent repetition Of the tragedies of
history.
The foundation has called on its fell
low psychiatrists in bulletin just issued.
Says the bulletin: "All attempts to de-
fleet our people from avoidance and
evasion Of facts as to real dangers have
until recently been generally ineffective
+ and even dangerous in repercussion on
those of our leaders who have made
| them. It is but natural that now, when
the pattern OF events in Western Europe
can scarcely be excluded from attention,
and when we begin to see the evil ef-
| fects that prolonged self deception has
had on our competence for national de-
tense, a great many Of our people show
a mental state that is clearly related to
| panic.
Panic is disorganization. Personal
disorganization often passes over into a
chronic paranoid state. The terror from
a feeling of all-enveloping danger is
measurably reduced by deluding ones
self to the effect that it is the work of
particular personal enemies or groups
OF people. BY this unwilling, entirely
irrational process, the situation is made
to seem more reasonable, more within
ones capacity to endure, if not to rem
edy. The panicky state of many of our
people is apt to follow this same pat
tern, the more in that we really are
permeated by subversive elements who
are IN the service Of enemies of democ-
racy. Thinking about fifth columns
within these United States can take the
form OF paranoid suspiciousness and
serious misinterpretation OF trivial and
irrelevant acts and utterances.
This form of morbid distrust and
suspiciousness only serves our enemies.
Difuse paranoid states are demoralizing.
They exhaust the sufferer. They dis
tract, annoy and intimidate people who
come in contact with him. A nation
shot through with morbid fears and
hatreds is foredoomed. Its peoples are
incapable of unitary, disciplined and
resolute actions In the furtherance of
long grange plans. It's people are less a
people than fear-ridden mob engaged
in more or less random efforts at escape.
Behavior tends to be aimlessly destruc-
tive. 1t cannot be integrated collabora-
ton for mutual salvation.
Every psychiatrist and any other
physician acquainted with psychiatric
principles may well address himself i'm
mediately to controlling the paranoid
tendencies which are now appearing in
every community. No one else is quail
fled. Cultural change has reduced the
utility Of everything that used to be
normative.
This ominous breach in our national
solidarity is the first demand of a great
emergency to which psychiatry must
respond. The response must be prompt.
Each Of our people should know that he
and our secret enemies work together
toward tragically different goals. If he
is calmly alert to what goes on he can
learn to observe useful data which he
can formulate and report to those espe-
cially concerned with protecting our in
ternal security. AS he improves his
alertness he Is bound to feel more. Sc
cure. less completely at the mercy of
irrational fear and hatred, and more
keenly aware Of the generally. valid as
COntraSted with the intensely nersonal