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ABREACTION IN THE MILITARY SETTING

1947; American Medical Association; Volume: 57; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/archneurpsyc.1947.02300250039003

2330-9628

Harold Rosen,

Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

IN THEIR epoch-making work on hysteria, Freud and Breuer first used the term to describe the intense reproduction, under hypnosis, of the original emotion accompanying the recollection of traumatic experience.1Recently, with the increased use of intravenously injected barbiturates in the treatment of war neuroses, the importance of abreaction as a therapeutic measure has been stressed. It is basic in narcosynthesis,2or narcoanalysis,3and in hypnoanalysis.4The purpose of this paper is not to review the literature dealing with the subject but, rather, to present a brief outline of our experiences with, and our conclusions about, the use of abreaction in the treatment of combat-precipitated neuroses in the only general hospital in the European Theater of Operations in which the total case load was continuously neuropsychiatric. Abreactive therapy seemed especially valuable as an initial step in the treatment of acute battle reactions with pronounced amnesias,