Original Papers: THE RELATION OF PSYCHONEUROSES TO MENTAL DEFICIENCY.

Abstract

DURING the War we heard very little of mental deficienev in this country. Cases of cvery kind--all failures of adaptation brought on by emotional or commotional shock, actual neuroses, psychoses, and mentally defectives lacking in the innate potentialities for adaptabilitv-were more conveniently bundled into the new pigeon-hole 'shell shock', and these have been handed down to us as pensioners under the official term 'neurasthenia'. Little account seems to have been taken of mental deficienev as suclh and high-grade amentia has been rarely recognized. In the stream of war literature that has come forth devoted to the question of the pyschoneuroses, this aspect of the subject has been completelv neglected. Only such cases as were severe enough to come under the observation of the psvehiatrists have been recorded. And vet, as an indication of the general ignorance relating to the diagnosis and recognition of mental defici- ency in this countrv, which resulted in so many defectives being passed into the armv. the reports of various medical officers' show that the admissions for such cases to militarv miental hospitals varied from 14 per cent to 30 per cent of total cases, and that, as we should expect, mental deficiency alwavs figured more prominently in the