War neuroses.

Abstract

On the basis of observations made on the war neuroses during the World War and more recently, certain general conclusions may be drawn. It may be stated that such neuroses show essentially the same mechanisms, somewhat modified by war conditions, as those of civil life. The clinical pictures are similar, particularly to the traumatic neuroses of peace, with the psychosomatic problem playing a more important role than was recognized in the last war. Basic therapeutic principles are essentially the same as in civil life with the important exception that treatment methods must be, at times, limited in scope and must aim toward returning casualties to duty as soon as possible. As present warfare is so very much directed against civilians, in speaking of the neuroses we make no differentiation between cases occurring in the civil population and among troops. Finally, terms such as "shell shock" or "soldier's heart" should be avoided because of their unfavorable connotations.It has been our aim in this bibliography to present the most significant of recent papers on the war neuroses and to include references which have not appeared in earlier bibliographies. There are 57 titles selected from over 130 articles published since 1927. That date was chosen because it marked the year of publication of the comprehensive bibliography by Fenton and Morrison on American contributions to military neuropsychiatry (17). Foreign articles for the war years may be found in abstract in the bibliography published by Brown and Williams under the auspices of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1918 ( 9). The survey of the German war literature by Karl Birnbaum, which was begun in 1915 and carried on throughout the war, is another valuable reference work (5). Volume X of our own government publication, The medical department of the United States Army in the World War, contains a wealth of excellent material on the war neuroses (58). In addition there is a bibliography, apparently privately circulated (1918), by Thaddeus Ames which contains 1 Prepared under a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation.