Wizard 6
Subtitle: a combat psychiatrist in Vietnam
By: Doug Bey.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Texas A&M University military history series ;; 104; Texas A & M University military history series ;; 104.
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: College Station
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
Subjects: Bey, Doug, 1938-; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Psychological aspects; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Personal narratives, American.
Genres: Personal narratives, American.
Other titles: Wizard six
Description: "In 1969 six psychiatrists were assigned to combat divisions in Vietnam, charged with treating soldiers showing psychiatric symptoms in order to get them back into battle. Doug Bey, whose radio call name in the 1st Infantry Division was Wizard 6, was one of those psychiatrists." "Drawing on graphic detail gleaned from a journal Bey transcribed when he got back stateside, this psychiatric specialist describes the daily life of a military support unit, the boredom and mind-numbing routine, but also the social issues and psychiatric crises he confronted. In Vietnam he treated people with a range of coping mechanisms, including counter phobic reactions, self-medication with drugs and alcohol, and "gross stress reaction," as well as the gamut of psychiatric illnesses."

"Each month Bey and his staff saw some four hundred men, including characters like the Vietnam equivalent of Klinger from M*A*S*H, a killer dentist, soldiers addicted to killing, and others who did not want to go home. He witnessed firsthand black pride, Vietnamese prejudice, racial conflict, and the Viet Cong's fear of mental illness." "Bey's book provides an account that views the immediacy of combat from the perspective of thirty-five years in psychiatric practice and extensive study of combat and post-combat psychology. Wizard 6 offers new perspective on the Vietnam war and its aftermath and draws cautious comparisons with the issues today's troops may face both in the field and when they return home."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prelude to Vietnam; title: Stepping through the looking glass; title: Black and white in Vietnam; title: Diagnosing and treating patients in the division; title: The Viet Cong's perception of mental illness; title: Drugs and alcohol; title: Civilian health care; title: High-risk individuals and REMFS; title: High-stress periods; title: The first R&R; title: Escaping from stress; title: Time grinding on; title: Madness and medals; title: Getting away to Saigon and the second R&R; title: Coping with Vietnam; title: Short and leaving Vietnam; title: And I say to myself.