The guns are quiet now.
The papers of peace
have been signed.
And the oceans of the earth are
filled with ships coming home.
In faraway places, men dreamed
of this moment.
But for some men, the moment is
very different from the dream.
Here is human salvage--
the final result of all that
metal and fire can do
to violate mortal flesh.
Some wear the badges
of their pain--
the crutches, the bandages,
the splints.
Others show no outward signs,
yet they too are wounded.
This hospital is one of the many
for the care and treatment
of the psychoneurotic soldier.
These are the casualties
of the spirit--
the troubled in mind;
men who are damaged emotionally.
Born and bred in peace,
educated to hate war,
they were overnight plunged into
sudden and terrible situations.
Every man has his
breaking point,
and these, in the fulfillment of
their duties as soldiers,
were forced beyond the limit
of human endurance.
At ease, men.
On behalf of the commanding
officer and his staff
of Mason General Hospital,
I want to extend a hearty
welcome to all of you
on your return
to the United States.
There's no need to be alarmed at
the presence of these cameras,
as they are making a
photographic record
of your progress
at this hospital
from the date of admission
to the date of discharge.
Here are men who
tremble, men who cannot sleep,
men with pains that are
none the less real
because they are
of mental origin.
Men who cannot remember.
Paralyzed men whose paralysis
is dictated by the mind.
However different the symptoms,
these things they have in
common--
unceasing fear and apprehension,
a sense of impending disaster,
a feeling of hopelessness
and utter isolation.
May I have your last name?
Meishner, sir.
How do you spell that?
M-E-I-S-H...
May I have your last name,
please?
Wulliver.
How do you spell that?
The psychiatrists
listen to the stories
of the men, who tell them
as best they can.
The names and places
are different.
The circumstances are different.
But through all the stories
runs one thread--
death, and the fear of death.
And then after you got wounded
what happened?
Same things, only worse?
Seems like my nerves keep
getting worse on me.
They get worse.
These airplanes, they bother me.
I got killed nearly
by one of them.
You nearly got killed.
Where were you at the time?
Saint-Lo, I believe.
Somewhere over there.
I don't remember.
What were you doing when
the planes came over?
I was in a hole.
Do you know where you are?
I think I'm in the States now.
They told me I was coming back.
But they told me
I was going to die.
In the hospital I wouldn't eat,
hardly.
But I was sick,
and I wouldn't eat hardly.
They told me I was going to die
if I didn't eat anyhow.
Told me that they didn't care
whether I died or not.
We will see that you don't die.
You won't die.
I lost my last buddy up there,
little Norman.
He was second scout,
I was first scout.
They had it all mixed up
up there.
They were shelling us.
Well, did that make you nervous?
I should...
I'm first scout, and I should
have been out in front.
And he went out and I started
right after him,
and he got shot.
And he... he just said,
"Oh, Dutch, I'm hit."
And he crawled to my feet, and
I start calling for the medic.
And I went back to see if I
could get the medic,
and there wasn't any.
And I started to go out after
him again,
and they wouldn't let me go.
And he was the last one of the
original boys that was with me.
Him and I were the last two left
out of the original.
And when you were shelled,
how did you feel?
I don't know.
I just... after Norman got hurt,
got killed,
why I was all right when we were
moving up or attacking
or anything like that.
But when we get pinned down
I start thinking about him
laying back there.
And what happened to you
when you'd think about him?
How would you feel?
I just didn't care what
happened to me.
You mean you didn't want to
go back into combat again?
Yes, sir, I wanted to
go back.
I wanted to stay there.
I wanted to keep on for him and
all them other guys--
Norm, John, and Stryker, and
Tex, and Pop, and...
And how do you feel
right now?
I feel all right.
How have you been getting along?
Well, fairly well, sir.
You were overseas.
Yes, sir.
Where?
We were in France,
and then we went to Germany.
Where?
France to Germany.
And what outfit
were you with?
I was with
Headquarters Detachment,
Mobile.
I see you're PFC.
At present, sir.
You had to go
in the hospital.
Sir?
You had to go in the
hospital.
Twice, sir.
It says here on your record
from overseas
that you had headaches,
and that you had crying spells.
Yes, sir.
I believe in your profession
it's called nostalgia.
In other words, homesickness.
Yes, sir.
It was induced when shortly
before the war
I received a picture
of my sweetheart.
Yes?
I'm sorry, I can't continue.
That's all right.
Griffith, Griffith?
Yes, sir?
Come on and sit down a minute.
Now, a display of emotion
is all right.
I'm not doing this
deliberately, sir.
Please believe me.
Of course you're not,
I do believe you.
A display of emotion is
sometimes very helpful.
I hope so, sir.
Sure-- it gets it off your
chest.
You wouldn't be here,
you wouldn't have been returned
as a patient,
if there wasn't something
upsetting you.
Yes, sir.
I'm sorry.
Well, now, you say you had
received a letter from your...
Not a letter, sir.
A photograph.
A photograph, yes.
Well, what about that, now?
Well, sir, to be
perfectly honest with you,
I'm very much in love with my
sweetheart.
She has been the one person that
gave me a sense of importance
in that through her cooperation
with me,
we were able to surmount so many
obstacles.
What happened?
Well, when I was in
combat...
Can you speak louder?
I have trouble hearing you.
Yes, sir.
During the time, I got worried
that my brother...
he was killed in Guadalcanal.
What was he, a Marine?
Yes.
Now, I notice in this
history here
that you saw a vision of your
brother.
What... tell me something about
that.
What happened?
Oh, I guess it was a
dream.
Well, describe the dream.
What did you see in the dream?
I dreamt that I was
home, my brother was home,
and my other brother was home.
We all were home.
All of you were home.
Sitting around the table.
Everybody was happy, and we were
laughing, you know, talking.
Just admiring each
other.
And then it ended there.
And you could see these
images clearly.
It was like in a dream,
see?
Yeah.
What about this Mindanao thing
you were telling me about?
Well, in Mindanao,
after I got the news,
I admit I was scared.
You were scared.
I don't know.
Sometimes I'd hope something
would happen,
then again I'd say, "Well,
something did happen."
What do you mean by
"something happen"?
You mean you were hoping that
you'd be wounded and sent back?
Is that what you mean?
No.
What do you mean by that?
I meant that I hoped
that just...
you know, I was so disgusted and
tired of everything,
I just didn't feel like living.
And then I changed my mind, and
I'd think back to my folks,
and it would be a double blow if
something happened to me.
And I'd be standing guard,
sitting a machine gun nest,
watching.
And then I'd hear a little
noise, and I'd let go, shoot.
Wasn't nothing, probably.
It was an animal or something.
Any noise made you upset,
and you'd just shoot.
At that time, yes.
Do you feel worried about
anything now?
I don't know.
Are you mixed up?
Kind of.
What's that pin on your
shirt there?
My heart.
Why do you cover those up?
Aren't you proud of them?
Yes, sir.
You got a Purple Heart and
campaign ribbons.
Yes, sir.
Well, why are you covering
them up?
I mean, there must be some
reason for you doing that.
Well, what happened over there?
We got in a scrape,
and...
I was in the house there, just
got off of guard duty.
And it was Friday the 13th, and
I'm sweating it out all day.
Patrol came up from town,
patrol,
and they shot a panzerfux though
the wall.
Well...
And what?
I was laying on the
couch,
and right before it happened I
felt a little jittery,
so I lay down on the floor.
When I got up again, the couch
was all torn.
In other words, you were
almost killed.
Is that it?
Right.
It must have gone right over my
head.
Do you feel conscious...
that is, are you aware of the
fact
that you are not the same boy
that you were
when you went over?
Do you feel changed?
Yes, sir.
In what way?
I'm more jumpy.
How about with people?
I used to...
I used to always like
to have fun.
I used to always be going
places.
I don't like to do nothing no
more.
How long were you overseas?
Were you in any combat at all?
Just the second month, sir.
I tried every way to
keep my mind occupied--
reading, going to the gymnasium,
getting...
going out with the fellows and
trying to become an extrovert,
trying to get out of myself.
But it seemed to Me that I got
worse and worse.
And after a while I developed...
after the fear of insanity,
I started developing fears,
different sorts.
Did you ever have similar
pains before you got...
Never in my life.
Have you ever been nervous
before in your life?
No, sir.
Never. I was a solid man.
Do some noises bother you
particularly?
I just
shake a little, but not bad.
Well, I guess I just
got tired of living.
You know, put it that way.
I have trouble
sleeping, yes.
Dreaming of combat, you know?
I just took off,
because I see
too many of my buddies gone, and
I figured the next one was me.
A man can just stand so much up
there, see?
Admission note.
Poole, P-O-O-L-E comma Walter L,
T5.
Transfer diagnosis.
Anxiety reaction, severe.
Active symptoms in remission.
On this, their first
night back in the States,
each man who is able may make a
long distance call without cost.
After months and years of
silence,
familiar voices are heard once
again.
Then each man makes for himself
a small home
which will be his for the eight
or ten weeks to come.
Now in the darkness of the ward
emerge the shapes born of
darkness,
the terror of things half
remembered.
Dreams of battle,
the torment of uncertainty and
fear and loneliness.
The day begins with an early
morning ward inspection.
The medical officer in charge
checks the condition of every
man.
Modern psychiatry makes no sharp
division
between the mind and the body.
Physical ills often have psychic
causes,
just as emotional ills may have
a physical basis.
Possibilities of organic
disturbance in the brain
are investigated by means of the
electroencephalograph.
The Rorschach Test.
The things that the patient's
imagination sees in these cards
gives significant clues to his
personality makeup.
This looks sort of like
a drawing of two women
standing on a rock and waving
their hands.
This man suffering
from a conversion hysteria
requires immediate treatment.
Organically sound, his paralysis
is as real
as if were caused by a spinal
lesion.
But it is purely psychological.
Well, just sit up top the
middle of the bed there.
I feel pretty good,
though.
That's fine.
Now sit yourself over there.
Well, now, can you move over
just a little
so I can talk to you?
Yes, sir.
Now, what is the trouble?
You seem to be upset.
Just nervous.
Nervous?
Yes.
It makes me flinch like that.
I see.
How long has that been going on?
Since Friday.
Friday.
Friday night.
Come on suddenly or
gradually?
Suddenly, sir.
How?
Well, it started in the
afternoon with crying spells.
And felt something
funny in my shoulders here.
Back bothered me.
Just started crying, lost
control of my legs and my arms.
Was there any reason for
crying spells?
I don't know, sir.
Anything happen at home to
bother you?
Well, my mother's been
ill.
She has been ill?
That worry you a lot?
Quite a bit.
Well, now, has this got
anything to do
with your mother's illness?
Any reason why you should have
that kind of reaction?
No, sir, not that I
know of.
Unless my mother's illness might
have brought this on.
I try to hold in, but it hurts.
I see.
You've just been holding these
things in.
That's right, sir.
No way you can control this
at all?
No, sir.
Well, now, we're going to
have to help you do that,
of course.
Let's take off this jacket here.
Just slip that off.
All right, now lie down on the
bed.
Shoes?
No, we're leaving the shoes
on so you can walk in them.
I think we're going to get you
walking.
Let's come over here.
That's the boy.
That's fine.
That's good.
Now you lie steady.
Lie steady, that's a boy.
This is all going to go away as
I give you this medicine.
No bother at all.
The method employed here
is effective in certain types of
acute cases.
An intravenous injection of
sodium amytal
induces a state similar to
hypnosis.
What a torpedo that is.
You mind if I look this way?
You look that way.
Nothing for you to watch here.
But you're going to talk to me
as we go along.
Yes, sir.
That's all.
Now, you're not going to feel
much of anything else.
You're going to feel a little
bit woozy.
The use of this drug
serves a twofold purpose.
Like hypnosis, it is a shortcut
to the unconscious mind.
As a surgeon probes for a
bullet,
the psychiatrist explores the
submerged regions of the mind,
attempting to locate and bring
to the surface
the emotional conflict which is
the cause
of the patient's distress.
The second purpose of this drug
is to remove through suggestion
those symptoms which impede the
patient's recovery.
Now tell me a little bit
about what you're thinking of.
The thoughts are coming to your
mind now.
Nothing in particular.
Well, now, let's go back.
Let's go back to Friday.
Friday?
Yeah, think about that.
Friday.
My mother argues with me.
Your mother argues with
you.
Yeah.
What does she argue about?
Oh, every little thing.
If you sit down in the wrong
chair
or something like that.
Doesn't like the stuff we get in
the store.
Then she calms down.
Well, see, have you always
tried to please her?
Yes.
Always tried to please her.
I used to clean
the house with her
when I was smaller.
Well, now, why do you think
she argues like that?
Because she's sick?
Well, she doesn't try
to control her temper.
I see.
How about your father?
He's a swell guy.
He's a swell fellow, is he?
Gets kind of hot
tempered.
Since my mother's been sick it's
been costing a lot of money.
And he's lost a lot of
weight from worrying.
I see.
My mother argues with
him,
she wants to know where the
money is.
But I don't care about that,
long as everything turns out all
right.
Yeah.
Well, now, this jumping, what
does that make you think of?
Think about it a minute.
I can't help it.
It just jumps.
How about the legs?
Do you know anybody
that had any trouble with their
legs like that?
No, sir.
Except...
What did it make you think
of? Go on.
Except several...
several years ago...
...there was one
fellow,
he had something wrong with his
right leg.
Wound in the knee,
but he's walking today.
That hasn't bothered me.
Was that anything like your
leg?
No, he couldn't walk at
all.
He couldn't walk at all?
No.
What do you think of when
you can't walk like that?
I wish I could walk.
But what do you think of?
What comes to your mind
when you find that you can't
walk?
Just maybe I think
my mother and father should be
okay.
Sometimes I wonder.
Hope the war ends soon, and
things like that.
I see.
Nothing in particular.
Mm-hmm. And now the shakes
are gone, now, haven't they?
Yeah.
How about your legs?
They're good and strong.
They feel all right.
Move them.
Let's raise them.
I was able to raise
them before, but I can't walk.
How about them now?
They feel all right.
They feel good now,
as if you can walk on them,
don't they?
Toes feel numb.
Toes feel numb, but that's
going away, isn't it?
Yeah.
See? Raising them fine,
isn't it?
Yeah.
Now you're going to be able
to walk, aren't you?
I don't know.
Well, you're going to,
aren't you?
Yes, sir.
All right.
I'll walk.
I like walking.
You love walking.
Always been very fond of
walking.
Now you've found yourself unable
to walk.
Now you're going to get right up
and walk, right now.
All right, now let's sit up.
Sit up on the side of the bed.
Here you are.
That's fine.
All right, now stand up.
And look at that.
That good?
All right, now walk out here.
Walk over to the nurse all by
yourself.
That's the boy.
Walk over to the nurse.
You're just a little woozy.
That's the medicine.
Now come back to me.
Come back to me.
Open your eyes.
That's the boy.
Isn't that fine, isn't that
wonderful?
Sure.
All right, now again,
once more.
Careful.
I don't know how long I'm going
to be this way.
Oh, it's going to stay that
way.
It's going to stay,
because that's taken care of
your worry now.
All right, now come on back to
me,
and I'm going to let you go to
sleep.
When you wake up, you'll keep on
walking perfectly well.
How about it?
Thanks, sir.
Right-o.
All right, now let's get up on
here, and we'll go to sleep.
Now, there you go.
Now, I'm going to have you go
right to sleep.
When you wake up,
it'll be all right.
Thanks.
All right, sleep, Girardi.
The fact that he can
walk now
does not mean that his neurosis
has been cured.
That will require time.
But the way has been opened for
the therapy to follow.
Now a new way of living begins,
very different from the old one,
whose purpose was killing and
trying not to be killed.
Now in an environment of peace
and safety,
all the violence behind them,
they are building rather than
destroying.
Men have their choice of
occupational therapy.
Some find relaxation in
mechanical jobs.
Certain types of cases obtain
relief in precision work,
which answers their inner need
for order and certainty.
For sons and daughters and
nieces and nephews
and neighbors' kids, hobbyhorses
are turned out by the carload.
Physical reconditioning is not
the only purpose in sports,
which also serve to bring men
out of their emotional isolation
and back into group activity.
One of the most important
procedures
is group psychotherapy.
Here under the psychiatrist's
guidance
the patient learns to understand
something of the basic causes of
his distress.
As one of a group, he also
learns to understand
that his inner conflicts are,
with variations,
common to all men.
I think of it a little bit
like this.
We want to get you out of your
own feeling of isolation,
to get you to feel like you are
like other people.
In order to get to that, we have
to use knowledge as one thing,
and something else which has to
be added,
and that is an experience of
safety.
You could say it is almost the
core
of all our treatment methods--
development of knowledge of
oneself
with the accompanying safety
that it brings.
I'd like to see if we can get
some illustrations
of how one's personal safety
would stem from childhood
safety,
and how the childhood safety
itself
would stem from the parents'
safety.
My illustration, as a
child,
whenever I underwent any
experiences
that were frightening to me, I
never told my parents.
I kept it to myself.
While I was alone at night in my
room I'd call on God.
If I did anything wrong that I
was ashamed of,
I was ashamed to go to my
parents
and tell them what I had done.
So I kept it to myself.
And I used to...
I know I used to be in constant
fear that my parents
would find out my feelings.
Well, I wonder if there's
any of your mother's troubles
that you would know about.
No, my mother never
gave any of the children
any part of her troubles.
Well, that would be the
same thing that happened to you.
She didn't tell her troubles,
and you didn't tell yours.
You took your troubles to God,
and she probably did the same
thing.
Probably didn't even confide in
your father.
In other words, the kind of
method that you used
to get relief from anxiety was
really, we have to assume,
learned and felt right in your
home in the same kind of thing.
I think it was all
caused by
economic conditions in the
world.
I mean, people trying to comp...
compete with one another,
trying to get a better job,
trying to keep up with the
prices of living.
Things like that have caused a
lot of arguments in the home.
Mother and father arguing about
the price of food,
and that has a reflection on the
children, things like that.
So I think that was one of the
causes.
Was it worse not having
enough food to eat,
or the arguments between them?
Well, both.
I mean, there was...
Which was the worst,
though?
I guess the arguments.
Sure they were.
Of course they are.
Because I can't
remember about the food.
There you are.
You can't even remember about
the food, and the lack of food.
I have in mind my own
childhood, where,
coming from a moderate family...
moderate in the sense that the
family
had some sense of security.
What happened there was we were
told that we...
I mean, myself, my brothers and
sisters,
we couldn't just play with any
of the kids
we wanted to play with, unless
their parents in turn
had the equivalent of what our
parents had.
And as a result, we were kept in
a narrow circle,
very, very, narrow.
However, I have found that there
has been a strong yearning
on my part to break out of this
environment,
to be able to play with Tom,
Dick, and Harry.
I say the net result's like
this.
Your mother did not feel really
so superior.
She felt inferior when she tried
to make you take the attitude
you were better than the other
children,
so that now certain experiences
in the Army
have brought that out more
clearly,
because you've been thrown in
with Tom and Dick and Harry,
and need to get along with them.
It's not necessary to be in the
Army.
It's not necessary to be in the
war.
These kind of troubles have
always gone on
in all time through all the
centuries.
You were going to say something.
I never spoke until I
was seven.
Is that right?
Yes, sir.
And I stuttered very bad.
At 14 and 15 I couldn't recite
in school.
Today I'm able to talk.
Can you explain how you got
started to talk,
how you began to get over that?
During the war, the
first word I ever spoke,
Santa Claus had brought me a war
gun, and my brother broke it.
This is the First World
War, yes.
And so I...
Santa Claus was not in
your...
When I went in to get
my gun, I just said...
walked in, "Somebody broke my
gun."
That was the first thing I said.
You were angry because
someone broke your gun.
So that's the way I
started talking.
I would say all those
symptoms,
like being unable to speak,
stuttering and so on,
they have an underlying anger
and resentment
in the deeper parts of the
personality.
You could almost say it like
this.
Underneath "I can't" you usually
find "I won't."
Stuttering on Okinawa,
I was stuttering too,
about three weeks.
And as soon as I came here...
I've been here a month now...
I stopped stuttering.
You've stopped stuttering
completely since you came here.
Yes, sir.
Well, that's good.
I don't know whether that's a
tribute to the doctors
or a tribute to your fundamental
health.
It's due to my
fundamental self.
No tribute to the doctors
at all.
No, sir.
Very good.
Some patients require
special therapy.
Hypnosis is often effective
in certain types of battle
neuroses, such as amnesia.
This man does not even remember
his own name.
A shell burst in Okinawa wiped
out his memory.
The experience was unendurable
to his conscious mind,
which rejected it, and along
with it, his entire past.
Through hypnotic suggestion,
the psychiatrist will attempt to
evoke them.
Relax completely, and put
your mind on going to sleep.
All right, now, keep your eyes
on mine,
keep your eyes on mine, and keep
them fixed on mine.
Keep your mind entirely on
falling asleep.
You're going to go into a deep
sleep as we go in.
You're going to go into a deep
sleep as we go in.
Now clasp your hands in front of
you.
Clasp them tight, tight, tight,
tight, tight.
They're getting tighter and
tighter and tighter,
and as they get tighter, you're
falling asleep.
As they get tighter and you're
falling asleep,
your eyes are getting heavy,
heavy.
Now your hands are locked tight.
They're locked tight.
They're locked tight.
You can't let go.
They're locked tight.
You can't let go.
When I snap my fingers, you'll
be able to let go.
When I snap my finger, you'll be
able to let go,
and then you'll get sleepier,
and your eyes are getting
heavier.
Now your eyes are getting
heavier, heavier, heavier.
You're going into a deep, deep
sleep.
You're going into a deep, deep
sleep.
Deep asleep, far asleep.
Eyes are now closed tight,
closed tight.
Going to a deep, deep sleep.
Deeply relaxed, far asleep.
You're far asleep.
You're far asleep.
Now you're in a deep sleep.
You have no fear, no anxiety.
No fear, no anxiety.
Now you're in a deep, deep,
sleep.
Now just sit down in the chair
behind you.
Sit down in the chair behind
you.
Lean back.
Head now falls forward into a
deep, deep sleep.
Head now is falling forward.
You're going further and further
and further asleep.
When I stroke, your left arm
will become rigid
like a bar of steel,
and you'll go further asleep and
further asleep.
You're falling further and
further and further asleep.
Rigid.
Cannot be bent or relaxed.
When I touch the top of your
head,
when I touch the top of your
head, that arm will relax,
and the other will become rigid,
and you'll go further asleep.
You'll be in a very deep sleep.
And your sleep is deeper and
deeper.
Now when I touch this hand, my
finger will be hot.
When I touch this hand, my
finger will be hot.
You will not be able to bear it.
Your arm is rigid.
And now, as I touch your hand,
you will no longer feel any pain
there.
It will be normal.
Now the arm is relaxed,
and you're further and further
and further asleep.
Now you're deep asleep.
We're going back.
We're going back now.
Going back to Okinawa.
Going back to Okinawa.
You can talk.
You can talk.
You can remember everything.
You can remember everything.
You're back on Okinawa.
Tell me what you see.
Tell me.
Speak.
I'm in the battery
area.
You're in the battery area.
Go on, tell me what's going on.
Getting fire missions.
You're getting fire
missions.
Go on.
You see everything now clearly.
Getting shells thrown
at us.
You're getting shells
thrown at you.
From where?
Japs.
Japs. Go on.
Yes.
Keep on.
You remember it all now.
Every bit of it's coming back.
Japs getting near us
to get our position.
Japs getting near you to
get your position.
Go on.
Told us to get cover.
Who told you to get cover?
BC.
BC.
Go on.
They spotted us.
One of the boys got hurt.
One of the boys got hurt.
Took him away.
Yes, go on.
You remember it now.
Tell me.
It's all right now, but you can
tell me.
You can tell me.
Explosion.
Yes.
You remember the explosion now.
All right, go on.
They're carrying me.
They're carrying you.
Who's carrying you?
I don't know.
Where are they taking you?
Carrying me across the
field.
Across the field.
Go on.
Put me on a stretcher.
Yes?
Yes?
Go on.
They're still throwing
shells.
Yes, can you hear them?
Yes.
You see them?
No.
All right.
Where are they taking you now?
In a truck.
Why are you fearful now?
I want no more of this.
You don't want any more.
No.
You want to forget it.
But you're going to remember it,
because it's gone now.
It's gone.
You're back here now.
You're away from Okinawa.
You've forgotten it.
But you remember who you are
now.
Who are you?
Dali.
Dali, that's right.
Full name now.
Dominic Dali.
Dominic Dali, that's right.
Know your mother's name?
Isabel.
That's right.
Father's?
Salvatore.
That's fine.
You know who they all are now.
All right, now you're coming
back with us.
This is going to stay with you.
You're going to remember it all.
You're going to remember about
Okinawa.
You're going to remember about
the shells and the bombs,
but they're gone.
You're at ease, you're relaxed.
There's no fear, no anxiety.
When I wake you up, you'll be
comfortable, relaxed,
no pains, and no aches.
But you'll remember all that
I've told you,
all that you've remembered.
You can wake now.
Well, how are you?
Pretty good.
Under the guidance of
the psychiatrist,
he is able to regard his
experience
in its true perspective as a
thing of the past,
which no longer threatens his
safety.
Now he can remember.
Well, Hofmeister, what's
your trouble?
It's hard
for me to get my words out.
Yeah, it does seem to be a
bit tough.
How long have you had that
trouble?
It started
about a month ago.
Where were you then?
I was in France.
You were in France.
Have you been in combat?
Yes.
Well, maybe we can help you
talk a bit better,
and you can tell me more about
it then, right?
Let's lie down and see if we
can't help you on that.
This man is not a
chronic stutterer.
He suffers from a battle tension
which the drug will attempt to
diminish.
Like the man who could not walk
and the man who could not
remember,
his illness has an emotional
basis.
Get all comfortable now,
and relaxed.
We're just going to give you
some medicine here,
and it's going to help limber up
that tongue of yours.
And this is going to make you
feel a bit groggy.
Well, now, tell me now, how do
you feel now?
Make any difference in your
feeling?
Boy, and how.
It's just like seventh heaven.
What is it?
Tell me about it.
Boy, I can talk.
That's fine, isn't it?
I can talk!
I can talk!
That's good, boy.
Listen, I can talk!
Oh, God, listen, I can talk!
Holy Mother of God, listen!
All right, it's coming back
now.
Take it easy.
Oh, listen, I can talk!
Just the way you always
did, isn't that right?
Listen.
Oh, God, I can talk.
Just the way you always
did, Hofmeister.
Why don't you try going with it
now?
Oh, nice!
Let's take it easy now.
Just talk just a little lightly
now.
Tell me, got any idea why you
couldn't talk before?
What's coming to your mind now?
Tell me, what's coming to your
mind now?
What is it in your mind when you
couldn't talk?
What is it that stopped it?
Something came through there and
stopped it.
What is it, now?
Think quickly, think deeply.
Let's go back.
When was it you lost your
speech,
had your trouble talking?
Go back quickly.
Seems that I first
noticed it on a boat.
On a boat.
Going over.
It first started with an S.
And the fellows laughed at me.
I don't know why they laughed,
until the guy started...
Well, let's start with that
S.
Let's go back to that S now.
What were you thinking then?
What was in your mind then?
Right now?
No, then.
On the boat?
Yes, with that S.
When you couldn't say S right.
S.
The port side.
Port side.
Port side.
Port side of the ship.
What side's that?
That would be the left
side.
Left side, that's right.
Yeah, I remember it.
Because we were out
there that afternoon,
and we saw the fishes.
And we had some flying fishes.
And I came down, and I said...
I was telling the fellow
underneath me about the port...
that I had seen some flying
fishes on the port side.
He tried telling them
about the flying fishes,
and he stumbled over the S
sound.
And the fellows laughed at him.
Think hard, S, S.
What does S remind him of?
S, S.
He remembers-- it is a sound he
fears.
A sound of death in combat.
The sound of a German 88 high
explosive shell coming in.
Now it is possible to proceed
to the basic method of
psychiatric treatment--
discussion and understanding
of the underlying causes of his
symptom.
As the weeks pass, the therapy
begins to show its effect.
The shock and stress of war are
starting to wear off.
For these men are blessed
with the naturally regenerative
powers of youth.
Now they are living less in the
past and more in the present.
Sometimes they think of the
future.
The war years must be put aside,
and the responsibilities of
peace must be considered.
A man might open a filling
station, or a hardware store.
Or he can buy a few acres of
land and raise some chickens.
He might even go back to school.
Visitors day.
Now the men resume their contact
with the world outside.
These are the people they are
coming back to,
whose lives are bound up with
theirs.
Without their understanding,
all that has been accomplished
in the last few weeks
can be torn down.
With it, their return to life
can be doubly swift and sure.
Classes in group psychotherapy
continue.
The men are thinking of
themselves
in relation to society.
How will they fit into the
postwar pattern?
How will the world receive them?
You fellows have had an
opportunity
to be home with your families
since you've returned from
overseas.
Have you noticed any change
in the various members of your
family toward you,
and their reactions toward you?
Well, I found out after
four years of absence
that it only took me the second
day to be really relaxed,
and I was right chummy again
with my dad,
and we talked about the old
neighborhood
and the new changes.
I don't know.
It surprised me.
Do you feel that your
family has to be taught
how to treat you when you come
back?
No, absolutely not.
How do you want to be
treated by family?
The same I was treated
before I went into the service,
no different.
You don't want to be
treated any differently?
No.
I was talking to one man, and I
said,
"What do you think of us fellows
that come back
with Psychoneurosis Anxiety
State?"
And I says, "You can see that
we're not crazy, by any means."
And he says, "Well, before I
came out here to see you,"
he says, "my first impression
was like in Bellevue."
He said, "The fellows from the
last war there
are completely maniacs."
He said, "That was my first
impression."
And I'm wondering if, I mean,
the great percentage of the
people are going to be like that
when we get out.
That is a common concern
among servicemen who have
developed nervous conditions
during their stay in the Army,
as to what the public is going
to think about them.
Undoubtedly there will be people
on the outside
who won't have any understanding
of the condition,
who may think of it as being a
rather shameful condition.
That's why we're having an
educational program,
trying to education the public
into understanding.
Unfortunately, most of you
fellows
have gone through some very
severe stresses in the army,
stresses that civilians are
rarely subjected to.
In civilian life, you can avoid
serious stresses.
If a civilian, the average
civilian,
were subjected to similar
stresses,
he undoubtedly would have
developed
the same type of nervous
condition
that most of you fellows
developed.
All of us have our so-called
breaking point.
And our survey outside
showed that
civilians on the whole were more
nervous than soldiers.
On Park Avenue, for instance,
where some of your richest
people live,
most of the patients are people
who suffer
from nervous disorders.
And if the doctor won't give
them a pill, why,
they'll go out and say, "Well,
he's not a good doctor."
So therefore they're given
pills,
and they take them at home.
They take these pills at home
because the hospitals are too
full.
If the hospitals were empty,
they'd be in a sanitarium
or so forth.
Having been through a
number of these discussions,
like the other men have, I know
that we have learned the basis
of how we've gotten nervous.
Some of us through combat,
and some of us by not being in
combat.
And I think... and I'm sure that
we have a better understanding
of our conditions, and I'm
pretty grateful of being here
at Mason General Hospital, like
a lot of fellows are.
It just so happens I couldn't
walk.
And they made me walk.
I couldn't walk when I arrived,
and I was here 24 hours, and
they made me walk.
I feel pretty grateful for
getting my limbs back.
But that's what I'm driving at,
is that I know
that when I get out of here, and
the other fellows do too,
we're going to try our best to
make ourselves as best we can.
And we feel more confident to
grasp this nervous situation
that's come about us, and we
want to show people
that we can do things on our own
on the outside,
whether we've been in a hospital
for nerves,
or wherever we've been, whether
we've lost an arm or a leg,
that we can be just as good as
anybody else.
All I want is that they give us
a chance to prove our equality,
like they said they were.
And I hope they keep their
promise.
That's all I hope.
Would you make it a point
to tell your employer
that you were a psychoneurotic?
Well, if he's an
intelligent man,
which most well-known employers
are, that own large concerns,
why he's going to react
the same as any other normal
human being would.
He's going to say, "It's
absolutely plausible,
and the man right now looks all
right.
I'll try him out."
But you may run into
employers
who are not that broad minded,
or intelligent.
Yes, sir.
And I'll sell myself to them.
How about you, Hofmeister?
Do you have any plans about
jobs,
or do you have any fears about
getting a job?
I have no fear
whatsoever.
I've got my job waiting for me,
sir.
You have your job waiting
for you.
I think it comes down to this,
doesn't it--
that most of you fellows feel
that you ought to be honest with
your employer,
that you have nothing to hide,
nothing to be ashamed of?
Isn't that the general attitude?
Yes, sir.
That's the way all the men feel.
Your time in the service
was not entirely wasted.
You have learned a great deal in
the service.
For instance, a great many jobs
and tasks
that you've learned to do in the
service
that you'll have had absolutely
no contact with in the past.
You've also learned to work in
groups,
something that every soldier
learns to do
very early in his military
career.
This definitely will be of much
value to you
in your future civilian
employment.
The weeks have slipped
by fast.
The first strangeness of
hospital life
has become routine.
Sometimes a man learns something
new.
Deranger always did want to play
guitar.
And now the days begin to seem
long.
There's the old healthy sound of
bellyaching in the air--
"Spinach, spinach again."
And, "How about a good movie for
a change?"
And, "How about putting some ice
cream in the ice cream soda?"
No longer is a man shut up
within the lonely recesses of
himself.
He is breaking out of his prison
into life--
the life that lies ahead,
offering infinite possibilities
for happiness and sorrow.
How does a man find happiness?
Is there a secret to discover?
What is the mysterious
ingredient
that gives joy and meaning to
living?
You know in the Bible where
it says,
"Man does not live by bread
alone"?
Children don't grow up well
without safety and confidence.
If that wasn't in one's
childhood, in growing up,
you could say, "Now, there's
something missing
during all that time."
And the next question is how to
supply it.
And it does need to be supplied.
Not all of the learning in all
of the books
is half as valuable in getting
over nervousness
as to find someone that you
esteem,
that you can learn to feel safe
with,
where you can get a feeling of
being accepted, or cherished,
where you get a feeling that
you're worthwhile,
and that you're important to
someone.
You could say the feeding that
you didn't get,
that something more than bread,
when you were little,
you still need to get it.
You still need to be fed with
acceptance,
and to find the safety.
In other words, knowledge alone
is not enough.
Home, Sarge! Home, home!
Nobody got it.
Get up, get up!
Get up, get up and go around!
Eight weeks have
passed.
What about these men?
Are they ready for discharge?
How complete is their recovery?
How about the boy in right
field?
I just didn't care what
happened to me.
How about the kid at
bat?
Foxhole was covered by
dirt.
I was covered up for 29 hours
afterwards, until they found me.
He's out, he's out!
Out! Joe, you're out.
Joe, you're out.
How about the umpire?
Hard for
me to get my words out.
You're out, go on!
Batter up.
How about this kid?
How about him?
Are they well enough to be
discharged?
That is for the doctors to
decide at tomorrow's boarding.
The answer is yes.
Men, this is your last military
formation.
Today you are returning to your
homes,
your families, and friends.
Many of you have been looking
forward eagerly to this day.
But remember that when you
reenter civilian life,
on your shoulders falls much of
the responsibility
for the postwar world.
May your lives as civilians
be as worthy as your records as
soldiers.
Good health, good fortune,
and Godspeed.