II. Reports on Clinic Activities

1942–47

(under the auspices of The Boston Psychoanalytic Institute)

Director: Dr. Felix Deutsch.

The Psychiatry Clinic was established in 1942 by the Boston Psychoanalytic Society with the aims (1) to offer a service to the community in the immediate crisis of the war by extending the services of the members of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, i.e. of psycho-analysts, to under-privileged victims of war; (2) to observe and to collect information about the special psychological reactions of psychiatric casualties, with emphasis on the effect of their personal reactions upon the community.

During the 5 years of its operation, the Clinic received 1, 288 applications which were screened through the secretarial, social and medical service of the Clinic before they were considered for psychiatric treatment or psychiatric consultation. Of these, 668 individuals were accepted for psychotherapy, involving a total of 4, 204 treatment interviews. Four-fifths of the patients were men, one-fifth women. During the first year of the Clinic's operation, the male patients were for the most part men whose mental or emotional difficulties became apparent at the Induction Centre or in the Training Camps or in Defence Industries. These categories decreased in number in the course of the years but still composed almost half of the total male patients.

During the first years of the war there was a growing need of psychiatric care for servicemen discharged from active combat areas with acute symptoms and for those with chronic conditions previously unidentified, which flared up under the stress of war. Popular interest in the condition of the returned soldier increased in the later phase of the war because of the community concern about absenteeism in industry with the resulting need for the employment or relocation of discharged servicemen. In the post-war period the emotional difficulties of the veterans centred mostly around job proble