Varia

Abstract of Proposed Plan for the Psychic Rehabilitation of Psycopathic and Neuropsychopathic Soldiers. Thesis.— The government has assumed the responsibility for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers in a most commendable manner, well recognizing the economic and social value of such training. Patients who broke down mentally during the war are being discharged from our institutions as soon as they adjust enough to be called “social recoveries.” But it is an error to assume that these men are well. Most of them suffer from dementia praecox, and developed this form of psychosis because they were unable to adjust to the conditions of army life. Recovery is always with defect, usually by forgetting the whole experience and denying the reality of their symptoms. Such a recovery leaves the patient a mental shipwreck, a bankrupt, and likely to again become a victim in time of stress. In fact patients discharged only a few months ago as recovered are again being admitted to our institutions. If the government assumes the responsibility of rehabilitating a soldier who has lost a leg, how much more should it assume the responsibility for the rehabilitation of a man who has lost his mind, where rehabilitation is needed in its greatest degree? These cases can be rehabilitated and the government should take immediate steps to discharge its responsibility.

These men are leaving our institutions with the knowledge that they failed to take the part of a man. The term “shell-shock,” while acting as a balm for the feelings of the relatives and friends, does not delude the patient himself. His sense of inferiority is often profound or he believes himself a confirmed sexual pervert for which there is no cure; he recognizes his inefficiency and fears that he will break down again. This state of mind consigns him to a life of fear and unhappiness with all its pitiful over-compensations, with a constant downward trend in effort, morals, and ambition. The stigma of having been in an insa