Some Post-War Psychological Problems

THERE is a great deal of discussion and speculation to-day about post-war conditions, and especially about the future of our own profession. Post-war planning and reconstruction, the re-moulding of our spitfires and hurricanes back into pots and pans, the return of our fighting men from the adventures and excitements of war to the steady pursuits of peace, present us with problems which we will all have to face. Psychiatrists, as students of behaviour, are, of course, particularly interested in the human side of the problem. Their experience in dealing with large numbers of men in the Services during the war, ought to be of some assistance to us all in facing problems of behaviour after the war. It may, therefore, be of interest to describe in the briefest outline what the psychiatric experience in the Service so far has been, and what lessons can be learnt from it. Our greatest psychological heritage from the last war was the 1922 Report of the War Office Committee on "Shell Shock." This not only laid great emphasis on the need for better recruitment and proper selection of personnel, but also stressed the importance of morale in preventing neurotic breakdown. In the first number of the British Medical Joiurnal for this year, Brigadier Rees, the army consultant in psychiatry, produced a most comprehensive article on "Three Years of Army Psychiatry in the United Kingdom." It containied an interesting table showing how the psychiatric service is organised (see table on page 96). A glance at it shows the importance attached to psychiatry. There is now a special directorate of army psychiatry. The director, however, is not himself a psychiatrist. On the contrary, he is a regular hygiene officer, i.e., an expert on preventive as opposed to therapeutic medicine. The psychiatric service is essentially a prophylactic one. As in the case of typhoid or diphtheria, prevention is easier, cheaper, and more effective than treatment. It will be seen from this table too what a close liaison exists between psychiatry and selection of personnel (S.P. for short). Before the wvar, psychiatrists at times made use of Vocational Gutidance in judging the aptitudes of problem children, so as to place them in careers to which they could best adapt themselves. Similarly, the Institute of Industrial Psychology was employed by certain enlightened firms to obtain workers best suited to the jobs they had to offer. All this accumulated experience has been incorporated into S.P. A job analysis of the many tasks in different arms of the Service was carried out by S.P., and this is the basis for posting men correctly in the arm to which each is best suited. One of the first considerations in building up sound morale is to have sound leadership. Therefore, great importance is attached now to the selection of officers. Candidates come before a War Office Selection Board. They live with the members of this Board for three days, and are under continuous observation at both work and play. Their intelligence and emotional reactions are examined. It is not enough to be clever, one must also have "guts," character, combative temperamenf,