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This book by Professor Bond, a psycho-analyst, is based upon his war-time experiences as Director of Psychiatry to the U.S. Eighth Air Force stationed in
England. It is a short book; but it would be a mistake to imagine that the author confines himself to the psychiatric aspects of operational flying. This study is a comprehensive and stimulating attempt to understand the whole problem of man's love and fear of flying. The war-time experiences of the pilots, dramatic and interesting in themselves, are used to obtain a deeper and wider understanding of this problem.
The peculiar merit of Dr. Bond's approach lies in his ability to see the flyer from the inside and to make clear his conflicts. Previous accounts have often become so engrossed in the environmental and physiological stresses of flying that the feelings of the flyer hardly emerge. Or, again, in giving statistics relating to breakdown rates, or percentages of airmen showing early neurotic traits, the individual human situation is forgotten. This does not mean that Dr Bond in his book either ignores the peculiar environmental conditions or sets aside the help that statistics can give, but rather that he does not let them obscure the need to understand the inner conflicts of the pilots. It is true that there have been brilliant individual accounts, for example that of Richard Hillary in The Last Enemy, or that of Saint-Exupéry, but this is the first attempt at a scientific assessment of the psychology of flying.
The other feature of the book is that it is a practical guide to all problems affecting members of aircrews—their selection, morale, and the peculiar difficulties of disposal of those who break down. There are as well first-class accounts of forms of neurosis and their diagnosis and treatment, in which it is clearly shown how far the feelings, often unconscious, of the medical officer and the commanding officer enter into the situation. The author is able to support many of his views with dir