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JOHN
G.
WATKINS
assigned to one of
14
treatment companies, containing
100
to
150
patients each.
At that time, the organization of clinical reports was conceptualized
as follows:
1.
The
diagnostic
formula:
Predispositionplus stressequalsneurosis.
2.
The therapeuticformula:Motivationplus insight equals
”cure.”
3.
Theprimaryfactorsto
be
addressed:
(a)
symptoms,
@)
dynamics,
(c)
sec-
4.
Treatment:
(a)
motivate
to
get
well,
and
@)
developinsight.
In
many of these cases, there was little evidence of predisposing fac-
tors in their histories. The combat casualties with
PTSD
seemed to be
largelycaused by battle trauma.
In
others, the known history data
of
the
patient indicated that there was a latent neurosis, or a breakdown ready
to happen, that was activatedby the trauma of combat as a precipitating
stress. The specific symptomatology (anxious,phobic, dissociative,de-
pressive, hysterical)may then have reflected intrapsychicfactorscovert
prior to the patient’s army experience.
In
the summer of
1945,
I,
being the only professionalwith experience
in
hypnosis, was assigned to a ”Special Treatment Company,” which
included a psychiatrist, who practiced “narcosynthesis”with sodium
amytal and sodium pentothal, and a psychiatricsocialworker, who was
experienced in progressive relaxation techniques (Jacobson,
1938)
and
nondirective therapy (Rogers,
1942).
My job was to accept or reject difficultpatients from the other compa-
nies who were considered suitable for hypnotherapeutic treatment.
Acceptanceoften was based on the patient’s responses to informal
hyp-
notic susceptibility tests, such as arm-drop or postural-sway.
I
read literature on hypnosis and traumatic neuroses availableat that
time (Alexander
&
French,
1946;
Alpert, Carbone,
&
Brooks,
1946;
Erickson,
1945;
Fisher,
1943;
Grinker
&
Spiegel,
1944;
Jacobson,
1938;
Janet,
1925;
Levin,
1945;
Rogers,
1942;
Sandler,
1945;
Scott
&
Mallinson,
1944;
Young,
1931)
and added to my armamentarium of hypnothera-
peutic techniques.
The first hypnotic inductions were generally eye-fixation or pos-
tural-sway,
and
the therapy itself consisted primarily of relaxation sug-
gestions, symptom relief, and motivation administered under as deep a
hypnosis as could be induced.
Therapeutic successwasmoderate but positive. It may have alsobeen
facilitatedbecause the SpecialTreatment Company was the only unit in
which patients received individual attention.
In
most companies, group
therapy plus reassurance, support, and medications were the order of
the day.
Patients were kept until it was felt they had sufficiently recovered
fromthe acute conditions they sufferedprior to arrival atWelchHospital,
ondarygain,
and
(d)motivation
to
get well.
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