HUMAN REACTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 March 1940, Page 3

HUMAN REACTIONS

WAR’S STRAIN ON NERVES.

OBSERVATIONS BY NOTED PSYCHIATRIST.

Since husbands, brothers, sons, and sweethearts have left home to join the fighting forces, there has been a noticeable increase in Sydney of nervous disorders, particularly among women. A leading Sydney psychiatrist, with European experience, has watched closely the effect of the war on the nerves of the people in Sydney, and he said recently that when many women realised that, their men might have to serve overseas, nervous tension increased.

Ho said, also, that some men who bad joined lhe Second A.f.F., had discovered that their nervous system was not strong enough to face war. and tiicy had had to leave the Army. "Wai' has different effects upon people." lie said. "I should say that introspection has much to'do with nervous disorders. People worry and ponder about themselves, but when a war occurs, and people are lifted out o( lliemselyes. by an interost which is sc stupendous and tragic that it transcends any personal problem, . then there is a tendency for certain human being with nervour trouble to become belter.

"It is also true that many people | with nervous sickness receive a menI tai tonic when they read the newspapers and realise that millions of people I in the world are much worse off than I they are. "That is one side of the picture. There is another side which occurs when the war comes into direct contact with the lives of people. Such was the case with the Second A.I.F. For the first time many women realised that the war was real and earnest, and they suffered accordingly. long war imposes a dangerous strain on everyone. The German people, for example, have been regimented to such a degree that no longer arc they able to think wholly for themselves. If this war continues long there must be a crack in the human fibre of the Reich. "Human beings arc not meant to stand such a strain. The fact that the German people have been regimented mentally will make the crack more dangerous and wider when it does come. The nervous reactions of such people are always more violent than those of a more balanced people. "It is i. most interesting problem purely from the medical point of view. The Germans are not Martians, or people of iron. They are subject to the same emotional and nervous stresses that we are. How long will their nerves stand the strain? On that hinges largely the people of the world."