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Those who treat functional disorders are constantly told by the patient that doctors have told him to exercise his will power, and forget all about the incidents
which have been his undoing. Hale White is quoted as having stated that 'talk should never be about war experiences, but that the patient should be helped to forget by diverting his mind with easy games, cards, croquet, etc. Carver states that forgetfulness thus advised is nothing more than repression, which psychological analysis shows to be the cause of the patient's anxiety state. He states, 'Roughly one may note three grades of repression or forgetfulness.
First the degree in which the idea or incident is so unbearable to the ego as to be immediately and completely repressed.
The second degree is that in which a patient remembers most of the events of his military life, but has incompletely repressed some of them on account of their disagreeable nature.
The third degree is one in which he deliberately tries to exclude the whole of his military service from his mind, and desires to live as though it had never been.
In reference to the first two degrees he quotes two cases treated successfully by bringing back to consciousness the forgotten memories connected with the origin of the symptoms.
In repression of the third degree the symptoms usually arise after demobilization. The patients have never been good at adaptation to reality. Treatment resolved itself into getting the patient to face external reality, to remember and assess his past failures and disagreeable experiences at their right value.
Making conscious the forgotten material was only the first step in treatment. Readjustment and reeducation were the ultimate aim.