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[MENTAL ILLNESSES DURING HOSTILITIES] Psikhozy i psikhonevrozy voyny: Sbornik [i.e. Psychoses and Psychoneuroses during the War: Collection of Articles]

Leningrad; Moskva: Lenbiomedgiz, 1934. Item #1170

150, 2 pp.: tables. 22x15 cm. In original printed wrappers. Tears of the spine and rubbed edges. Otherwise in a very good condition.

Scarce. First edition.
The first Soviet attempt at studying mental and psycho-neurotic diseases during military operations.
The pre-war Soviet reality was characterized by the skeptical attitude towards military psychiatry. By the order of the People’s Commissariat for Health (Narkomzdrav), the psychiatric service in the army was almost eliminated, since according to the views of the political leadership of the time, there should be no mental illness in the army collective in the era of great transformations. Even more, mental disorders, which were viewed as simulative behaviour, often aroused discussions on disciplinary and criminal responsibility of neurotic military personnel.
Against this background, the publication of the collective work Psychoses and Psychoneuroses during the War took Soviet society by surprise. The book was issued under the initiative of the Psychiatric Department of the Military Medical Academy, which set itself the task of studying the issue of mental disorders observed during hostilities: It is clear that we must carefully prepare for a future defensive war. Importantly, the work served as the only Soviet manual of its kind used by the medical personnel in World War II. The collection consists of 5 articles: General Questions of Psychopathology in War; Wartime Neuroses; Psychoneurological diseases in the Red Army; Severe Military Psychoses; and Organization of Psychiatric and Neurological Care in the Red Army during the War. The work concentrates on different manifestations of a psychotic state in servicemen (contusional psychosis, emotional neurosis, hysterical traumatic diseases, traumatic neurosis, etc.) and offers detailed instructions on the treatment of the patients. The authors set off hysterical episodes as the most difficult form of psychoneuroses, calling on political apparatus to pay particular attention to those inclined towards the risk-group. Interestingly, one of the authors, Bogen, highlights the Red Army’s dominant position in the fight against mental illnesses and states that with the help of communist ideology Soviet doctors can easily assist deceased servicemen. The last section of the book features tables showing the number of psychotic cases during WW1, distribution of patients in accordance with clinical forms and elaborates upon the organisation of psychiatric help (psychiatric wagon, psycho-help in the area of the front-line rear, scheme of evacuation: regiment-isolator-evacuation base for the mentally ill, etc.). Each article is followed by the bibliography, which, because of the lack of Soviet material, is usually presented with foreign literature.
The collection features articles by D. Bogen, N. Bondarev, S. Gol’man, V. Makarov, S. Ronchevskiy. The book is edited and preceded by an introductory article written by Viktor Osipov (1871-1947), Soviet psychiatrist and one of the founders of the pathophysiological direction in Russian psychiatry.
Overall, an important document that served as the ABC of the treatment of mental illnesses for Soviet doctors during WWII.

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