Treating and preventing trauma : British military psychiatry during the Second World War

This is a study of military psychiatry in the Second World War. Focusing on the British Army, it recounts how the military came to employ psychiatrists to revise recruitment procedures and to treat psychiatric casualties. The research has shown that psychiatry was a valued specialty and that psychiatrists were given considerable power and independence. For example, psychiatrists reformed personnel selection and placed intelligence testing at the centre of the military selection of personnel. Psychiatrists argued that by eliminating the 'dull and backward' the tests would help improve efficiency, hygiene, discipline and morale, reduce psychiatric casualties and establish that the Army was run in a meritocratic way. However, it is probable that intelligence testing made it less likely that working-class men would receive commissions. Still, the Army had no consistent military doctrine about what the psychiatrists should be aiming for -to return as many psychiatric casualties to combatant duties as was possible or to discharge men who had found it impossible to adapt to military life. In the initial stages of the war, the majority of casualties were treated in civilian hospitals in Britain, where most were discharged. This was partly because the majority were regarded as constitutional neurotics. When psychiatrists treated soldiers near the front line most were retained in some capacity. The decision on whether to evacuate patients was influenced by multiple factors including the patients' military experience and the doctors' commitment to treatment or selection. Back in Britain, service patients were increasingly more likely to be treated in military hospitals such as Northfield -famous for the 'Northfield experiments'. These provided an alternative model of military psychiatry in which psychiatric intervention refocused away from individuals and their histories and onto social relationships, and where the psychiatrists' values were realigned with the military rather than with civilian general medicine.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Treating and preventing trauma : British military psychiatry during the Second World War

This is a study of military psychiatry in the Second World War. Focusingon the British Army, it recounts how the military came to employpsychiatrists to revise recruitment procedures and to treat psychiatriccasualties. The research has shown that psychiatry was a valued specialtyand that psychiatrists were given considerable power and independence.For example, psychiatrists reformed personnel selection and placedintelligence testing at the centre of the military selection of personnel.Psychiatrists argued that by eliminating the 'dull and backward' the testswould help improve efficiency, hygiene, discipline and morale, reducepsychiatric casualties and establish that the Army was run in a meritocraticway. However, it is probable that intelligence testing made it less likelythat working-class men would receive commissions.Still, the Army had no consistent military doctrine about what thepsychiatrists should be aiming for -to return as many psychiatric casualtiesto combatant duties as was possible or to discharge men who had found itimpossible to adapt to military life. In the initial stages of the war, themajority of casualties were treated in civilian hospitals in Britain, wheremost were discharged. This was partly because the majority were regardedas constitutional neurotics. When psychiatrists treated soldiers near thefront line most were retained in some capacity. The decision on whether toevacuate patients was influenced by multiple factors including the patients'military experience and the doctors' commitment to treatment or selection.Back in Britain, service patients were increasingly more likely to betreated in military hospitals such as Northfield -famous for the 'Northfieldexperiments'. These provided an alternative model of military psychiatry inwhich psychiatric intervention refocused away from individuals and theirhistories and onto social relationships, and where the psychiatrists' valueswere realigned with the military rather than with civilian general medicine

Soldiers in psychiatric therapy: the case of Northfield military hospital 1942-1946

This article discusses the psychiatric therapeutics of Northfield military psychiatric hospital and suggests that treatment in Northfield was characterised by ideals of citizenship typical of the period and inextricably linked to the military. The two Northfield experiments, for which Northfield has become famous, glorified the group as a social unit and promoted adaptation to the needs and values of society as the route to mental health. In the context of the Second World War, such adaptation meant accepting the duties of a soldier. In the published writings regarding the first Northfield experiment, the psychiatrist Wilfred Bion emphasised his military role in returning patients to their units, a job which he thought was best conducted by men like himself who had experience of leading men into battle. Writing about the second experiment, Tom Main emphasised the importance of including military staff in every aspect of the hospital life from therapy to administration. Some Northfield psychiatrists were less content with this strongly military approach and this led to the conflict which ended the first experiment and continued to spark disagreements throughout the hospital's existence