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Lidz has undertaken a rounded-out study of a group of psychiatric casualties from Guadalcanal in the hope that such a presentation will render the material comparable with experiences from other theaters and other campaigns. The author sketches the grim military situation in which the men found themselves on Guadalcanal in mid-October, 1942, and graphically depicts the terrific external stress to which they were subjected for two months without respite. Certain emotional attitudes and reactions were experienced by nearly all the men, viz. a conviction of the inevitability of defeat and death, loss of faith in leadership, anxiety over their own behavior lest it lead to suicide, homicide, cowardice or insanity, and a variety of resentments and guilt feelings. These emotional strains could perhaps be regarded as more devastating to the ego than bombs, shells and physical stress. Still it was not possible to account fully for the outbreak of neurosis in these brave and apparently stable men by a mere recital of the external and conscious internal stresses to which they were subjected. Others exposed to the same stresses emerged from the ordeal without serious psychiatric disturbance. Exploration of the personality structure and early conditioning experiences revealed that those who became psychiatric casualties had certain defects in their 'character armor'. Among the deleterious developmental factors, a disrupted home in childhood seemed the most frequently traumatic. As regards therapy, abreaction did not prove efficacious; only insight into the personal meaning of the events gave effective relief. Several