Military Psychology

Mental health problems among asylum seekers and refugees are becoming a public issue, but awareness of this problem among the mental health community is relatively low. Although advances have been made in the provision of innovative mental health services for asylum seekers and refuges with PTSD, they are not systemized, and not widely known to professionals in the field. A publication offering practical guidelines for the treatment of torture victims and political refugees does not exist. Broken Spirits aims to bring together the works of the most respected mental health professionals-from the U.S. and abroad-and make available the most current knowledge on complex PTSD, forced migration and cultural sensitivity in diagnosis and treatment.

Tables Introduction War and Madness in History The Limits of Human Endurance The Face of Modern War Development of Soviet Military Psychiatry Soviet Battlefield Psychiatry Development of American Military Psychiatry American Battlefield Psychiatry The Future of Military Psychiatry Bibliographic Essay Index

The brief, successful Gulf War resulted in few casualties, but there were still recognizable "pockets of trauma." This study examines the Mental Health Services available in the theater of operations, the preparations made to train the soldiers for the stress of combat, and details of how they coped with the experience of combat. It assesses the Gulf War in terms of mental health. Some attention is also given to the phenomenon named "Gulf War Syndrome." The authors conclude that United States Military Forces were not prepared for the mental health requirements of combat.

This book argues that, to be most helpful to veterans, we must deal with this issue of complexity and not simply focus on a hypothecated or hoped for singular cause of Gulf War illness. Research in neuroscience has demonstrated that the boundary betwee

Modern psychiatry is based on the experiences and research of many psychiatrists, neurologists, neuropathologists and pharmacologists over the past 100 years. This historical account of psychiatry over the last century is therefore a timely publication of real interest to all psychiatrists and mental health professionals. It covers important developments in the recognition, understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders, and includes biographies of many of the psychiatrists pioneering these advances. The impact of psychiatry on society, its culture and politics is discussed in detail. This is an invaluable reference resource on the history of psychiatry. Its comprehensive design, with consistent structure and use of sidebar headings ensures readability and accessibility.

Shalit draws on the research he conducted as field psychologist in the Israeli military to offer an original behavioral model of combat that accounts for the fighting potential of an individual or group. His model is based on the appraisal process that the individual undertakes in combat conditions to assess a situation, whether it concerns him or not and regardless of his role. It is through this process that the individual makes a judgment, taking into consideration his past experience, knowledge, and expectations, that in turn leads to a course of action.

Presents an unromanticized and chilling look at men at war, and revises many long-held beliefs about the nature of violence and the behavior of soldiers. Asks what kind of men make the best killers, and how soldiers cope with the horrors they witness and the atrocities they are ordered to commit. Material is drawn from letters, diaries, and reports of veterans of the two world wars and the Vietnam War. Combatants in these wars share their experiences of killing and reveal themselves as individuals transformed by conflicting emotions. Includes b&w historical photos.

This book compares the influence of the period leading up to World War II and of the war itself on the discipline of psychology in two major, but very different countries. During the 1930s, Soviet psychologists were formally isolated from developments in Western psychology by the ideological requirements of the Communist Party; in the United States, a vast variety of topics was being researched. When the war began, the discipline in the Soviet Union turned increasingly toward specialized topics, such as the rehabilitation of the wounded, ways to improve morale, and the psychological basis of color-camouflage. American psychologists, on the other hand, applied their psychometric and clinical skills to military needs. With the coming of glasnost, American and Russian psychologists were able to collaborate to create the first thorough examinations of the state of wartime psychology in these countries. Of interest to all students and researchers of the history of psychology, psychological theory, andthe history of World War II.

Paul Wanke is currently an adjunct faculty member at Oregon State University and Lane Community College, Eugene, OR.

A startling omission from the extensive literature on the Pacific events of World War II is an analysis of Allied psychological operations. In this work Allison B. Gilmore makes a strong case for the importance of psychological warfare (psywar) in this theater, countering the usual view of fanatical resistance by Japanese units. Gilmore marshals evidence that Japanese military indoctrination was not proof against demoralization and the survival instinct.

The Pacific War was particularly brutal, racist on both sides, and often fought without regard to so-called civilized norms of warfare. Yet Gilmore offers her study as "the story of how psywar personnel attempted to convince Japanese and Americans alike that their assumptions about the other were misleading and counterproductive". To do so, she focuses on combat propaganda -- activities conducted in support of military operations and intended to demoralize Japanese combatants -- and examines the objectives of the psywar campaign. She outlines the process by which propaganda was created, evaluates the policies that guided that creation, and offers criteria for judging the relative success of these efforts. The work also examines the Imperial Army's training, the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese morale, and the Allies' attempts to exploit the Japanese military structure and ethos.