Military Mental Healthcare at the Cutting Edge

November 25, 2002

Military Mental Healthcare at the Cutting Edge

By Michael J. Stoil, Ph.D.

The United States military deserves credit for major achievements in mental health practice. During the Second World War, studies of "combat fatigue" greatly advanced understanding of mind-body interaction. Researchers working on "psychological warfare" accelerated the fields of cognition and perception. Dr. Ralph R. Greenson, author of the classic Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis, began his professional career treating war neuroses at an Army Air Corps hospital; his clinical experiences served as an inspiration for Leo Rosten's novel . . .