A MENTAL HYGIENE PROGRAM FOR THE MILITARY HOSPITAL

1. A mental hygiene program for the psychiatrically unfit soldier returning directly to civilian life has been described.

2. This program employs group psychotherapy combined with personal interviews to: (a) present an essentially physiological etiology of psychoneuroses in terms of situational reaction to a specific,i. e., military, environment; (b) deliberately arouse guilt by a discussion of evasion of duties and responsibilities and guide the emotional forces so generated along the lines of ventilation of hostilities and aggressive drives and compensating for guilt and inferiority by full participation in the war effort on return to civilian status.

3. The psychoneuroses, particularly the anxiety and psychosomatic states responded well to this approach.

4. The pre-psychotic, the psychopaths and the mentally deficient were largely unaffected.

5. The social and economic effects of persisting guilt and inferiority when exposed to critical and stigmatizing community attitudes were described as: (a) resulting in the development of groups of chronically dissatisfied, insecure persons the easy prey of demagogues and pressure groups and therefore a focus of social instability; (b) the motivation for persisting disability in order to justify return to civilian status with consequent loss of social productivity and continued dependency at enormous economic cost.

6. The need for an aggressive program of public education to complement this approach was emphasized. The sympathetic response of representative public groups to such a program was noted.