AIR-RAIDS PHYSCHOLOGY.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 February 1918, Page 6

AIR-RAIDS PHYSCHOLOGY.

POWERS OF RECOVERY

Adaptation to abnormal conditions is strikingly shown by the behaviour of the London population in the recent air-raids, which in some eases have occurred as frequently as five in one week. In London and its environs says an editorial writer in the Lancet (London) the inhabitants have already gone a long way toward behaving in bulk with bravery and prudence. They have “steadily improved in courage and calm’ ’ and recover normal balance at once as soon as the strain of the actual raid is over. Says the writer:

“The evidence of medical men who reside In the attacked centres, or who have been present quickly on the scene of an accident, or who have been summoned to attend the victims of shock, all goes to show that the inhabitants of London have steadily improved in courage and calm as they have learned the measure and the sources of the dangers to which they are subjected; and we are glad to state positively that among those whose natural anxiety has been greatest—and there is not a soul among us who does not feel anxious during an aerial attack for himself as well as for those nearest and dearest to him—the power of recuperation has manifested itself with great rapidity. The recurrence of the dangers has tended not to exaggerate those dangers, as- the enemy hoped fondly would happen if attack followed often upon attack, but rather has made the circumstances more tolerable; and it is this growing bravery which has become a feature of our psychology and is almost invariably followed by a complete recovery of bal-

ance ”