PSYCHIATRY IN WORLD WAR II

Abstract

To the Editor:— I notice in the November 9 issue ofThe Journalthat Dr. Amos R. Koontz of Baltimore in a communication on page 599 makes some inaccurate remarks on the subject of psychiatry in World War In the first paragraph of his letter Dr. Koontz states that during World War II all inductees had psychiatric examinations the purpose of which was to weed out the prepsychiatric cases. This was not true in World War I. If Dr. Koontz will review the War Department publication The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War (1929), volume X, Neuropsychiatry, he will be able to correct his erroneous knowledge of the subject. The Surgeon General's Office at that time, through the efforts of Col. Pearce Bailey, had a well organized group making psychiatric examinations of inductees. I think neuropsychiatric officers were well distributed at the various cantonments. I have personal knowledge of the work done because I was a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, assigned to psychiatric work at a recruit depot. The work was exclusively neuropsychiatrie, and we made reports direct to the Surgeon General's Office, Neuropsychiatrie Division.