The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-02
Psychiatrists Speeding
Cure OfMarine Neurotics
BY SGT. GEORGE E. MCMILLAN
Marine Corps Combat
CORRESPONDENT

Correspondent
SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH
PACIFIC (DelayeO - Up - The
Navy is moving psychiatrists into
the front lines with Marines.
One will be assigned to each di-
visional field hospital, thus COM
pleting what the Navy considers
a comprehensive program for
treatment of war neuroses.
Psychiatrists already are sta
toned in all Navy base and mobile
hospitals. One South Pacific hos
pital has been set aside for the
particular treatment Of mental
cases. It is outside the combat
area, in a city where the climate
is temperate and where there are
ample recreational opportunities.
Fifty per cent of the men taken
to this hospital are being returned
to combat. Front line treatment,
it is estimated, should substantial
ly increase the percentage of cure.
Fighting in South Pacific equa-
torial jungles is GRIM" says Capt.
A. A. Marsteller, commanding Of
ficer of the hospital, in explaining
the new plan. Cheat and the shut
in atmosphere of the jungle cause
men to develop a hostility to the
tropics. The fact that the enemy is
usually unseen adds to all the 9TH
er stresses"
Front-line treatment is especially
effective in cases of anxiety neu-
roses, the cases most easily treat
ed, as distinguished from chronic
neuroses, which are likely to be
of greater duration.
Examples of anxiety neuroses
are symptoms doctors call 'mut-
ism," amnesia, and ''hysterical
paralysis" among others.
Here is a story of mutism: A
Marine and his buddy fought for
days through swamps, and slept
in water-filled foxholes. One morn
ing the Marine looked up to see a
Japanese taking aim at his bud
dy. The Marine took aim at the
Japanese, his gun damned. The
Japanese killed his buddy. The
Marine was struck dumb.
THAT is understandable to
anyone" Captain Marsteller says
And it is just such cases as this
that lend themselves to immediate
skillful psychiatric treatment"
Success depends upon three fac
tors: /. Immediate treatment. 2.
That the men are not evacuated
to base hospitals. 3. The skill, ex-
perience, the insight of the psy-
chiatrist
In the case of the Marine who
was struck dumb, it would be fair
ly obvious to a trained psychiatrist
that this symptom was a negative
expression of the Marines feeling
of guilt, quite common in war.
The Marine felt that he hadn't done
all he should.
Using hypnotism or one of the
barbiturate drugs such as pento-
thol, the psychiatrist attempts to
get the patient to talk about the
incident. Then the patient must be
induced to say where he thought
he had failed. Sometimes the pat
lent re-enacts the incident. Then
the psychiatrist must reassure
him.
Talking under hypnosis is not
enough. The patient must be told,
must believe, that he can talk
when he regains full conscious
ness. Many such patients speak in
flat monotone when they first
regain speech. To cure this, the
psychiatrist conducts a few SIM
pie phonetic exercises.
1t is important that as much
progress as possible be made dur
ing the first interview. Each day
the patient remains mute is like
ly to prolong the illness.
Usually, these interviews must
be repeated, perhaps four or more
times.
Four meals a day and rest for
20 OF the "a hours a day is a usual
treatment. Almost all patients,
doctors say, are suffering from
what they call combat fatigue,
term used to distinguish it from
operational fatigue, which a man
can get merely from working and
living in South Pacific islands.
The combat psychiatrists are al
so doing preventive work. They in
terview, wherever possible, men
who report to sick call imme-
diately before the unit goes into
action, especially those who re-
port with symptoms such as CO.
litis, which are likely to have a
nervous origin.
Another plan is to talk to the
men in small groups and explain
to them the symptoms lof fear, ex-
plain that it is something not to
be ashamed of.
1t is just such self-concealed
fear OF fear which often leads to
crack-ups.
I~1