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Bychowski summarizes the causes of induction anxiety thus: (1) Fixation on the mother or on a mother figure. (2) Fear of physical injury or of narcissistic hurt. (3) Fear of an entirely masculine society in men with latent homosexuality. (4) Poor motivation in men who did not understand or accept the necessity of the war. Men whose passivity is combined with strong aggressions toward the father figure may have considerable difficulty in accepting discipline. Acting out of hostility in the form of extreme temper tantrums or even paranoid projections may occur in men with insufficiently controlled unconscious homosexual drives.
The findings of Knight and Orr, Jaspers and McCann as to the common sources of anxiety in servicemen are reviewed. An analogy is drawn from the fact that in British children anxiety was engendered not so much by physical danger as by the uprooting of family life and emotional ties.
On the other hand, certain personalities are peculiarly suited to military life. Among these are those with well-integrated passive attitudes, and those with underlying guilt which is relieved by subordination to higher authority. A plea is made for more accurate psychiatric study of selectees, both from the standpoint of the individual and of the group.