 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. Somewhere 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. General Hospital, I want to extend a hearty welcome to all of you when you return to the United States. There is 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 nonetheless real because they are of mental origin, men who cannot remember, paralyzed men whose paralysis is dictated by the mind. However different to symptoms, these things they have in common, unceasing fear and apprehension, a sense of impending disaster, a feeling of hopelessness and utter isolation. What's your last name? My name is. How do you spell that? N-B-I-S-E-N-B-I-E-N. Is that your last name, please? Well, over. 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 thing, only worse? No, man. And I can, uh, nerve keep getting worse, though. They get worse. The Arab thing, they bugged. I got killed in it, if you want to. You nearly got killed. Where were you at the time? I think I was, I believe, somewhere along the road. I remember. And what were you doing when the planes came over? I was in a hole. You know where you were? I mean, I think I'm in the States now. They told me I was coming back. But they told me I was going to die. On the hospital, I was knee-high then. I was sick. I was knee-high, and they told me I was going to die. But then he didn't help me. Well, they told me they didn't care where I died. And I was like, wait, we'll see you don't die. You won't die. I lost my last buddy up there in a little mormon. He was second scouting. I was first scouting. They had it all mixed up up there. They were shelling us. What did that make you nervous? I should have been first scouting first scouting. I should have been out in the front. He went out, and I started to grout after him. And he got shot. And he just said, oh, that's how I'm hitting it. Crawl to my feet. And I started calling for the medic. I went back to see if we could get the medic. And there wasn't any. And I started to grout after him again. And they wouldn't let me go. And he was the last one of the original boys that was with me. And him and I were the last two left out of the original. And when you were shelled, how did you feel? Well, I don't know. It's just after a mormon got hurt, did it kill him. I was all right when we were moving up or attacked and anything like that. When we get pinned down, I start thinking about him laying back there. And then what happened to you when you think about him? How would you feel? I just didn't care what happened to me. Do 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 the other guys, you know, John and the striker and the techs and popping. 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, uh, house that were you in? I was with headquarters detachment, 50th quarter master battalion at Mobile. I see your BFC. At Presenson. You weren't had to go to the hospital. Sir? You had to go to 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 that your profession is called nostalgia. In other words, who will say this? Yes, sir. It was induced when shortly before the war. I received the picture of my sweetheart. Yes. I'm sorry, I can't continue. That's all right. Rick, Rick, come on, sit down a minute. Now, a display of emotion is all right. I'm not doing this deliberately, sir. Please believe me. 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, there wasn't something upsetting you? Yes, sir. I'm sorry. Now, you say you had received a lot of from your... A lot of letters or a photograph. A photograph, yes. 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. Through that, through her cooperation with me, we were able to surmount so many obstacles. When I was in combat, I didn't know. Can you speak louder? Yes, I'm hearing you. During the time I got worried that my brother, he was killed in a canal. Over the submarine? Yes. Now, I noticed in this history here that you saw a vision of your brother. Tell me something about that. What happened? I guess it was a dream. Well, describe the dream. What did you see in the dream? I jumped up. I was home. My brother was home. And we know the brother was home. We were all home. All of you were home? Sitting around the table. Everybody was happy. We would laugh and, you know, and mourn each other. And then it ended there. You can see these images clearly. Yes, it was like in a dream, see. What about this Mindanao thing that you're telling me about? Well, I admit that after I got that move, I was, I admit I was scared. You were scared? I don't know. I sometimes, I hope something, what happened then again, I say, well, something did happen. How do you mean by something happened? 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, always sort of disgusted and tired of everything. I just didn't feel like living. And then I changed my mind. And I think about my folks and it'd be a double blow if something happened to me. I'd be standing guard sitting on a machine right now and just watching. You know, I'd hear a little noise and I'd let go of shooting. It wasn't nothing, probably it was an animal or something. Any noise made you excited and you just shoot? At that time, yes. Do you feel worried about anything now? I don't know. Are you mixed up? What's that pin on your shirt? My heart. Well, why do you cover those up? Aren't you proud of them? Yes, sir. You got a purple heart? Any campaign ribbons? Well, why do you cover them up? You know, there must be some reason for you doing that. What happened over there? We got in a scrape and I was in the house, sir. Just got off the guard building. It was Friday the 13th. I was sweating it out all day. The patrol came up in general to troll me. They shot a... a pan of fuzz through a wall. In what? I was laying on a couch and right before it happened I fell a little jerry stuck. Layed down on the floor. When I got up, again, the couch was all torn. You know the way you were almost killed, was that it? I... I almost got right over my head. Do you feel conscious? Are you aware of the fact that you're not the same boy that you were when you went over? Do you feel changed? Chumpy. How about with people? Just always. I've had fun now. I used to always be gone places. I don't like to do nothing no more. How long were you overseas? A lot of months. A lot of months. Were you in any combat at all? Just a six months. I tried every way to keep my mind occupied. Reading and going to the gymnasium. Getting going out with fellas and trying to try to become a lecturer. Trying to get out of myself. It seemed to me that I got worse and worse. And after a while I developed a fear of sadness. I started developing fears of different solace. Did you ever have similar pains before you got here? Never in my life. Have you ever been nervous before in your life? No, sir. Never. I was a sudden man. The sudden noises about you particularly? I could just shake a little bit. Well, I guess I just got tired of living here. I had trouble sleeping here. I had a dreaming of combat, you know. I just took off because I seen too many of my buddies gone. And I figured the next one was for me. A man can just stand so much up there. Admission note. Pool. P-O-O-L-E. Comma. Water. L. T5. Transfer diagnosis. Anxiety. Reaction. Severe. Active symptoms. In remission. On this their first night back in the States, each man who was 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 torments 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 give 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 it were caused by a spinal lesion, but it is purely psychological. Well, just let him up. So, I can talk to you? Yes, sir. Now, what is the trouble? What's that? That's the noise. Yes, it makes me feel like it. I see. How long has that been going on? Since Friday. Friday night. Come on, suddenly or gradually? Suddenly, sir. How? When I start in the afternoon with crying spells. And, uh, close up of one of my shoulders here, back by me. I start crying most control of my legs and my arms. 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? Does 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 it until my mother 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 gonna 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. My shoes. Right now, we leave the shoes on, so you can walk in them. I think we're gonna get you walking. Let's come over here. That's the boy. That's fine. That's good. Now, you lie steady. I'm steady. That's the boy. This is all gonna 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 amatol induces a state similar to hypnosis. Want to talk to you about this? You want to find out this way? You look that way. Nothing for you to watch here, but you're gonna talk to me as we go along. Yes, sir. That's all. Now, you're not gonna feel much of anything else. You're gonna feel a little bit woozy. The use of this drug serves a two-fold 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. Your thoughts are coming to your mind now. Nothing in particular. Well, now, let's go back. Let's go back to Friday. Yeah, think about that. Your mother argues with me. Your mother argues with you? Yeah. What does she argue about? Well, every little thing. If you sit down in her own chair or something like that, it doesn't like the stuff you get in the store. Uh-huh. And she comes down. You want to see if you always tried to please her? Yes. Always tried to please her. She used to clean her house when I was a small... Well, now, why do you think she argues like that? Because she's not 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 father. He gets kind of hot tempered. Since my mother's been sick, it's been costing a lot of money. Uh-huh. And he lost a lot of weight while worrying. I see. My mother argues with her and she wants to know where the money is. Uh-huh. But I don't care about that. Well, everything turns out all right. Well, now, this jumping, what does that make you think of? Think about it a minute. Well, I can't help it. It just jumps. Uh-huh. How about the legs? Do you know anybody who had any trouble with their legs like that? No, sir. What does it make you think of? Come on. Except several, several years ago... Uh-huh. There was one fellow. He had something wrong with his right leg. Uh-huh. Woman did leave, but he's walking today. That hasn't bothered me at all. Was that anything like your leg? I don't know. 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. Uh-huh. What do you think of? What comes to your mind when you find that you can't walk? It's maybe I think my mother and father should be okay. Sometimes I wonder. Hope the war ends soon. Things like that. I see. Nothing in particular? Uh-huh. The stakes are going now, haven't they? Yeah. How about your legs? They're good and strong. I feel all right. Move them. Let's raise them. Oh, I don't see them. But 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 with them, don't they? Toes feel numb. Toes feel numb, but that's going your way, isn't it? Yeah. See you. 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? Walk. I love walking. You love walking. I did. 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. 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. Now look at that. That's 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. Is that fine? Is that wonderful? Sure. All right. Now again. What's more? Always going to stay that way. It's going to stay because that's taking 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 of all. All right. Now let's get up in here and go to sleep. Now I'm going to have you go right to sleep. When you wake up, you'll be all right. Thanks. All right. Sleep, Gerardie. The fact that he can walk now does not mean that his neurosis has been cured. That would require time. But the way has been open 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 him. 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 neighbor's kids, hobby horses are turned out by the car alone. 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. And 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 that 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. 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 self would stem from the parent's safety. In 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. But when I did anything wrong, 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 the 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'd have to assume, learn and felt right in your home the same kind of thing. I think it was all caused by economic conditions in the world. I mean, people trying to compete with one another, trying to get a better job, trying to keep up with uprising, living things like that, of course, a lot of arguments in the home. Mother and father arguing about the price of the food and that has a reflection on their children. Things like that. So I think that was one of the causes of worse illness. Not having enough food to eat for the arguments between the both. I mean, there was... Which was the worst, though? Well, I just had to... Sure, they crossed the aisle. I can't move about the food. There you are. You can't even remember about the food or the lack of food. I have in mind my own childhood. We're 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... 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 taunt that can happen. I'd say that in that result, like this, your mother did not feel really so superior. She felt inferior when she tried to make her take the attitude you were better than the other children, so that now, in certain experiences in the Army, have brought that out more clearly, because you've been thrown in with Tom and Dick and Harry. I 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. So you were going to say something, sir? I never spoke until I was seven. Is that right? Yes, and I studied very bad at 14 and 15. I couldn't recite in school. They didn't even talk. Can you explain how you get started to talk? How you began to get over that? Doing the war, the first word I ever spoke, some of the calls that brought me a war gun. My brother broke it. Mr. First War War, yes. So I... I got a gun and your brother broke it. I didn't get my gun. I just said, war, Dick, 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 to talk. 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. In Okinawa, I was studying, too, about three weeks. And as soon as I came here, I started studying. You stopped studying completely since you came here? Yes. That's good. I don't know whether that's a tribute to the doctors or a tribute to your fundamental health. It's a little like one of my own soul. No, no tribute to the doctors at all. 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 provoke 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. Now, you're going to go into deep sleep as we go in. You're going to go into deep sleep as we go in. Now, clasp your hands in front of you. Clasp them 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, you're falling asleep. Your eyes are getting heavy, heavy. Now, your hands are locked tight. You're a 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. You'll be able to let go, and then you'll get sleep here, and your eyes are getting heavier. Now your eyes are getting heavier, heavier, heavier. You're going into a deep, deep sleep. Going into a deep, deep sleep. Deep asleep, far asleep. Eyes are now closed tight, closed tight. Going into 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. Now stroke your left arm to come rigid, like a bar of steel, and you'll go further asleep and further asleep. Falling further and further and further asleep. Rigid. Cannot be bent or relaxed. When I touch the top of your head, 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'll 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. You'll 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'll 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. Tell us to get covered. Who told you to get covered? BC. BC. Go on. There's fire. One of the boys got hurt. One of the boys got hurt. Take him away. I apologize for my condition. Yes, go on. You remember it now. Tell me. It's all right now, but you can tell me. You can tell me. Exposure. 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? Carry me across the field. Across the field? Go on. Put me in a stretch. 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? Yeah, it's up. Why are you fearful now? You don't want any more. 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? Dolly, that's right. Full name now. Dominic Dolly, that's right. I know your mother's name. Elizabeth. That's right. Father's. So that's fine. You know who they 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. And he isn't relaxed. 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. 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. Mr. What's your trouble? Word, sir. Yeah, it does seem to be a bit tough. How long have you had that trouble? It's started. Pardon? 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. Comfortable now and relaxed. We're just going to give you some medicine here that's going to help number up that tongue of yours. Man, this is going to make you feel a bit groggy. Why don't you tell me now, how do you feel now? Make any difference in your feeling? Well, it's just like seventh heaven. What is it? Tell me about it. Well, I can talk. That's fine, isn't it? Talk! I can talk! That's good, boy. Listen, I can talk! Listen, I can talk! Oh, there's nothing wrong! Coming back now, you're going to take it easy. Oh, listen, I can talk! Just the way you always do. Listen, I can talk! Just the way you always do, talk my son. You'll be right on with it now. Oh, nice! Let's take it easy now. Just talk to me, just a little lightly now. Tell me, you 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? You had your trouble talking. Go back quickly. It seems that I first noticed it on a boat. On a boat? Going over. It first started with a nest. And a fellow's laughed at me. I don't know why they laughed until I 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 a boat? Yes, with that S. When you didn't say that S right. Yes. Yes. The port side. Port side. The port side. The port side of the ship. What side is that? That would be the left side. Left side, that's right. Yeah, I remember it. Of course, we were out there that afternoon. We saw the fishes, and we had some flying fishes. I came down, and he said, I was telling a fellow underneath me about the ports that I had seen some flying fishes on the port side. He tried telling about the flying fishes, and he stumbled over the S sound. And the fellow's laughed at him. Think hard, S, S. What does S remind him of? S, S. He remembers. It is the sound he fears, the 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. Weeks past, 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 natural regenerative powers of youth. Now they are living less in the past and more in the present. Sometimes they think of the future. The areas 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 post-war pattern? How will the world receive them? You fellows have had an opportunity to be home with your family since you've returned from overseas. Have you noticed any change in the various members of your family toward you, and the 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 would write Chummy and get him with my dad, talked about the old neighborhood and new changes. I don't know. It surprised me. 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 your family? The same I was treated before I went to the service. No difference. You don't want to be treated any differently, no? I was taught in the one man. And I said, what do you think of us, fellows? I come back with Psychonorosis Anxiety State. And I said, you can see that we're not crazy by any means. He said, well, my, before I come out here to see, says my first impression was like in Bellevue. He said, fellows from the last war, they're completely maniacs. He said, that was my first impression. 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 educate the public into understanding. Unfortunately, most of you fellows have gone through some very severe stresses in the army, stresses that civilians are very 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. In a 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 sanatorium 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'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 folks are. I did 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 isn't my driving, that. It's that I know that when I got out of here and the other fellas do, too, that we're going to try our best to make ourselves as best we can. And we feel more confident than the grasp is in every 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 the hospital for the nerves or whatever we've been, whether we've lost mom or way, 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 want. Would you make it a point to tell your employer that you were a psycho neurotic? 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 possible. 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, Huffmeister? Do you have any plans about jobs? Do you have any fears about getting a job? No, they're whatsoever. They've got my job waiting. You have your job waiting for you. I think it comes down to this, doesn't it, that most of your 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 it is. Your time in the service was not entirely wasted. You have learned a great deal in the service. For instance, the great many jobs and tasks that you've learned to do in the service that you 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. Weeks have slipped by fast. The first strangeness of hospital life has become routine. Sometimes a man learns something new. The ranger always did want to play a guitar. There's the old, healthy sound of belly aching 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? Longer is a man shot 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 sacred, where you can get a feeling of being accepted, of cherished, where you get a feeling that you were worthwhile, and that you were important to someone. You could say, the feeding that you didn't get, that's 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. Good weeks have passed. What about these men? Are they ready for discharge? How complete is their recovery in right field? I just didn't care what happened to me. But the kid at bat, I thought so was covered by dirt, and I was covered up for 29 hours after what he did upon me. What about this kid to decide a tomorrow's boarding? The answer is yes. Your families and you have been looking forward eagerly to this day. But remember, when you re-enter civilian life, on your shoulders falls much of the responsibility for the post-war world. May your lives as civilians be as worthy as your records as soldiers. Good health, good fortune, and Godspeed.