98 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Vol. xv, 



service. Section VTI, General Orders, No. 74, August, 1918, would have facilitated and fur- 

 thered the service most importantly had it been issued six months earlier. 



(i) The low rank of the officers who were charged with the introduction, organization, and 

 direction of this new service made the work needlessly difficult and relatively very much more so 

 than other new kinds of service. Whereas the chief psychological examiner was invariably a 

 first lieutenant during the first several months of the psychological service, medical officers 

 engaged in tasks of similar responsibility and difficultness usually had the rank of captain, major, 

 or lieutenant colonel. Naturally enough, the rank of the officer in charge markedly influenced 

 the judgment of line officers concerning the importance and value of psychological examining. 

 Indeed, the low rank assigned to competent, experienced and adequately trained psychologists 

 in the Sanitary Corps is one of the most serious injustices to this new service, as well as to the 

 individuals concerned with it. The disapproval, when psychological examining had demon- 

 strated its practical value and the extension of the work to the entire Army had been authorized, 

 of the promotion of psychologists to the grades of captain and major and the resulting necessity 

 for the organization of work in new stations by first lieutenants was another serious blow and 

 handicap to the Division of Psychology. 



(j) Following this disapproval of promotions, came disapproval of additional appointments 

 for psychological examining, in spite of the fact that the War Department had previously 

 authorized a reasonably adequate number of appointments. As a result of disapproval of pro- 

 motions and appointments, psychological examining was conducted for months by men whose 

 rank was one or two grades lower than it should have been for the good of the service and in 

 justice to the individuals, and the work was carried forward as best it could be by staffs which 

 usually were not more than half the size which the work demanded. It was the rule during this 

 period, not the exception, that one, two, or three psychological officers of the Sanitary Corps 

 did the work which had been planned for a staff of four officers. These men labored continuously, 

 devotedly, and usually without complaint, under conditions which could scarcely have been 

 more unfavorable, and often with nothing but adverse criticisms and grumbling by way of 

 encour agemen t. 



(k) Another disadvantage which must not be overlooked is the fact that psychological 

 appointments were made in the Sanitary Corps, and as a result the psychologist was regarded by 

 medical officers and also by officers of the line as professionally inferior to officers of the Medical 

 Corps, if not to those of all corps. This placed the individual psychologist upon his merits. If 

 he succeeded in commanding the respect, confidence, and admiration of the officers with whom 

 he was associated and for whom his work was being done, it was by reason of his own qualities, 

 his professional proficiency, his tact and insight, and not because of the prestige given him by 

 his corps or his military rank. Psychologists, as well as the service of psychological examining, 

 won on merit and on that alone. 



(I) It has already been stated that general orders for the use of intelligence ratings were 

 lacking until near the end of the war. This served still further to increase the responsibility 

 and the difficulties of the chief psychological examiner, for in every station commanding officers 

 had to be convinced by demonstration of the various values of the ratings and persuaded to issue 

 on their own responsibility instructions for the use of these ratings. It thus came about that 

 instead of general instructions for the entire Army issued from the War Department, there 

 existed in innumerable stations camp or divisional instructions concerning psychological exam- 

 ining and the use of intelligence ratings. In the end this gave the psychological service a very 

 great advantage in certain camps because commanding officers appreciated the difficult circum- 

 stances, but its conspicuous local victories were purchased at a great price. 



(m) It has been pointed out that the use of the word "psychology" very nearly prevented 

 the development of this service. Added to this unfavorable circumstance was the con- 

 fusion of psychological with neuro-psychiatric work. This resulted naturally and inevitably 

 because of the similarity and unfamiliarity of the terms psychologist and psychiatrist, psychology 

 and psychiatry, and also because of the fact that psychologists were supposed to be working 



