Evening star., 1945-03-25

DIR. wINFRED ovERHoLSER.
Wartime Progress
Along the Way to
Human Happiness
THE SHAPING OF
PSYCHIATRY BY WAR
By Brigadier John RawHngs
Rees. Nv. w. Norton G. Co..
$275J
Reviewed by
WINFRED OVERHOLSER, M. D.,
Superintendent, st. Elis1beths
Hospital.
Each year, under an endowment
set up in memory of the late DR..
Thomas w. Salmon, great leader
in mental hygiene who effectively
organized phychiatry in our Army
in 1918, a distinguished psychia-
trist is invited to give at the New
York Academy of Medicine series
of lectures on pertinent psychia-
trio topic. This volume presents
the Salmon Lectures of 1914. The
author is a prominent British psy-
chiatrist who had experience in the
last war as well, and who has served
with distinction as consulting
psychiatrist to the British Army
since 1899.
We hear much nowadays of the
function of psychiatry in the Army
in selection, in training, in treat
ment and in rehabilitation. Much
was learned on the subject in 1918,
duly recorded, and filed away, with
the result that complete integration
Of our psychiatric services has been
somewhat tardy in development.
Brig. Rees points out that an almost
precisely similar state of affairs
came about in England. VERY
little" he says, was done by the
army to utilize this experience
(World War y. But the country
as whole through the medical pro-
fession benefited very greatly from
that mass experience of neurosis."
Once, however, the war was we'll
under way in 1888, the British Army
gave recognition to the Importance
of the selection of men (their man
power pool was relatively much |
smaller, so conservation had to be
practiced from the start) and to
the need of curing and utilizing in |
the service so far as possible those
men who had developed psyehiatric
The psychiatrist's func-
ton was given adequate status, and |
his work co-ordinated with the
other activities of the army. Some
indication of this recognition may
be gathered from the fact that over
a year ago there were three consult
ants in psychiatry in the British
Army with the rank Of brigadier!
Battle Neurosis.
This book is no dry-as-dust recital
OF history or of army organization;
it Is human, practical and broad
visioned. It is packed with the OBJ
servations of wise man of wide |
experience, and will interest all who
care about problems of human
nature. In discussing battle neu-
rosis, the author emphasizes the
universally of fear and the miscon-
ceptions that many people entertain
about the emotional effect of fear.
He goes on: Men are on the whole
less scared of being afraid and con-
sequently more inclined, when they
do crack, to react by straight anxiety
rather than by the development of
conversion symptoms (hysterical
paralyses, for example,"
To DR.. Rees the proven value of
Army personnel selection, the at
tempt to put the right man in the
right job, points the way to the
more intelligent dealing with prob
lens of civilian personnel in in
dustry. "The important thing ade-
quately demonstrated in the service
is that selection gives to the in
dividual with a job that fits greater
and better health" He
would have more numerous facilities
in the community for out-patient
treatment of incipient breakdowns,
a wider interest on the part of the
practitioner in the person.
ality problems of the patient, a pro-
gram OF adult education, closer
integration of psychiatry in general
improvement of mental
hospitals and of medical education,
and broad program Of psychiatric
research.
Incidentally, DR.. Rees pays his re-
spects to the hybrid and awkward
word "neuropsychiatry," which so
the American official
nomenclatures. He speaks not only
for the British psychiatrists, but for
many of his American colleagues in
opposing the rise of the term.
The volume is not only an author
ltative record of psychiatric prog
ress in war-it is pointer on the
road to social improvement and
greater human happiness. It can
be recommended heartily to all who
have relatives and friends with
problems, be they SOL
diers or civilians; a large audience,
indeed!
| Public Library Il
BY Margaret L. Frawiey, /
washington Public Ijhrarv