444 



PSYCHOLOGY OF STRESS 



or because the individual has actually grown 

 too mature (or independent) to find satis- 

 faction in returning to a dependent child- 

 like role (81), or is unable to do so without 

 anxiety. 



Similarly, the group relations among the 

 men should be considered. Under condi- 

 tions ideal for the group, the men must 

 break some of their emotional ties to their 

 family and home, and shift them to their 

 group. In a sense, then, this new group 

 takes the place of the family. As (emo- 

 tional) compensation for this shift of ties, 

 and for yielding some of their independence, 

 they feel a sense of belongingness with the 

 group, of esprit de corps (57). After shift- 

 ing their identifications they are able to 

 submerge some of their own selfish interests 

 for the welfare of the group (34), and at 

 the same time they are provided with a 

 realistic orientation to the present situation. 

 They then find it possible to share their 

 possessions with their "buddies," or even 

 risk personal injury for them, as they once 

 would for members of their family. The in- 

 ability to sever family ties, to submit to new 

 forms of discipline, to change one's way of 

 life — that is, the inability to readjust emo- 

 tionally is an important factor in causing 

 breakdown (19). Consequently, the men 

 should be made to feel a member of the 

 group, especially if it is small (21, 72), and, 

 if necessary, techniques should be used to 

 create this feeling (11, 13, 71). If, on the 

 other hand, the roots of the individual's 

 identifications with the officers and the group 

 are not deep and emotionally satisfying, the 

 frustrations and deprivations, the submis- 

 sion to authority and regimentation, the 

 fatigue, the stress of battle, the fear of death, 

 etc., will undermine his motivations to fight 

 and survive. As a result, he will tend to 

 become resentful and antagonistic and to 

 seek some form of escape. 



As a rule, the greater the emotional stress 

 experienced by all members of the group, the 

 more they become welded together, and the 

 more the weKare of the group supersedes 



the individual's. This is perhaps why, when 

 one member cracks under stress, the com- 

 posure of the others is severely threatened — 

 almost as if their own defenses and inte- 

 grative capacities were shattered. Thus, 

 whereas group identifications generally serve 

 to forestall breakdown under stress (42), 

 other members of the group may be more 

 vulnerable (97) when one of them does go 

 to pieces (73, 98). 



Over and above the ability to feel one- 

 self a member of the fighting group, the 

 individual's abihty to form positive identi- 

 fications in a context which is broader than 

 that of the family-like group is an additional 

 factor which may influence his susceptibiHty 

 to breakdown under emotional stress. Ex- 

 amples include ties and allegiance to one's 

 country, or to political, social or religious 

 values. It was frequently observed that in- 

 dividuals possessing such values tended to 

 be much less apt to suffer emotional break- 

 down as a result of war experiences (8, 10, 

 16, 30, 56, 68, 82, 92, 95). The individual's 

 values and beliefs should be consistent with 

 the action required of him (4, 6, 72). This 

 more abstract type of identification is es- 

 sentially based upon, and is a generalization 

 of, the more concrete forms discussed above. 

 Perhaps identification with these value sys- 

 tems stabilizes the individual by serving as 

 a buffer to present stresses, by making it 

 worth while to overcome temporary hard- 

 ships for a goal that is more important than 

 his own personal feelings and concerns. 



Besides observations of psychiatrists dur- 

 ing war-time, various findings have been 

 reported which bear on the relationship be- 

 tween early identifications and adult adjust- 

 ment. In one study, concerned with 

 analyzing subjects' reactions to several types 

 of leader-follower groups (48), it was ob- 

 served that the ability to accept and like a 

 strong, dominant leader is apparently de- 

 pendent on the individual's having experi- 

 enced an early home atmosphere which was 

 both firm and warm. Another investigation 

 was directly concerned with relations between 



