PSYCHIATRIC EXPERIENCE IN THE WAR, 1941-1946

Abstract

Psychiatry in the Army did a reasonably creditable job primarily because of the devotion and integrity and ability of a small group of men. It failed in a good many ways and some of these failures were because we in psychiatry failed to select and train new and better men; because we were too inarticulate. Psychiatry has had opened to it great and broad vistas of opportunity and need, many of which were apparent following World War I. But it is saddening to see how few were followed and reached these needs. Perhaps psychiatry still is not ready to rise to the occasion to meet these needs. Perhaps its body of knowledge is not sufficiently great to tackle them. Our best hope lies in the cohesion of our forces, a plan of strategy, a conviction as to the importance of the job, and a self-sacrificing aggressive, militant leadership.