During World War I, when Captain J. T. MacCurdy, a Canadian psychiatrist and Cornell University lecturer, was despatched on a special mission to Britain, he undertook one of the earliest studies of war neuroses. The new factor was the availability of high explosives following Nobel’s discovery of dynamite in 1867 (nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth) and developments thereof such as trinitrotoluene (TNT) and picric acid. High explosives were a boon to the mining and the civil engineer but inflicted terrible injuries on combatants. Shell shock—or, as we would now call it, post-traumatic stress disorder—resulted from extreme experiences on the battlefield, injury, concussion, being buried alive or simply the scale of the slaughter. This book, which was first published in 1943, contains the text of lectures delivered by Dr. J. T. MacCurdy to groups of officers from the army and the auxiliary women’s services early in WWII. MacCurdy, continuing on from his findings during WWI, discusses the nature of fear, the national factors at play in the creation and sustainability of morale with reference to the Allied and Axis powers, and the significance of psychological factors in practice in an organized community. “This intelligent, objective analysis of the nature of the psychological factor in war was intended for the British soldier, but its interest and application are universal.”—Foreign Affairs

Originally published in 1943, this book contains the text of lectures delivered to groups of officers from the army and the auxiliary women's services early in WWII. The lectures discuss the nature of fear, the national factors at play in the creation and sustainability of morale, and the significance of psychological factors in practice in an organized community.

Excerpt from The Structure of Morale The logical way in which to begin a discussion of fear would be to say just what fear was. That, however, is beyond me and, I believe, something that no psychologist can do - at least to the satisfaction of other psychologists. No more can he define 'love'. The layman may be surprised at this because, of course, he knows. But the specialist is often at such a disadvantage. In his famous lecture on The Name and Nature of Poetry Professor Housman said: 'poetry indeed Seems to me more physical than intellectual. A year or two ago, in common with others, I received from America 'a request that I would define poetry. I replied that I could no more define poetry than a terrie'r could define a rat, but that I thought we both recognized the object by the symptoms which it provokes in us.' We all of us know what it is to be frightened. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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