Captivity Psychoses among Prisoners of War

Understanding the Pow Experience: Stress Research and the Implementation of the 1955 U.S. Armed Forces Code of Conduct

“…They too stressed the brutality of Japanese treatment as well as the psychological trauma experienced by prisoners, which had created, according to Wolf and Ripley, a “long lasting handicapping effect on the personality adjustments of even the best integrated” (Wolf & Ripley, , p. 192). These psychologists, however, noted that their findings were provisional and argued, as did other researchers, that the overall dearth of POW studies meant that “very few soldiers, if any, anticipate or prepare for capture” (Lunden, , p. 725).…”

‘Give-up-itis’ revisited: Neuropathology of extremis

“…Frankl [20] noted in concentration camps that within, '… a few days the prisoner passed from the first to the second phase; the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death'. An 'apathy reaction' was widely observed amongst PoWs [11] even extending to a profound apathy syndrome [24] and was experienced by one prisoner as a 'demoralising melancholia' [25], and by another as a 'colossal inertia' who stated, 'I remember waking each morning and being unable to get up. I was not tired -I was just apathetic [and] [26].…”

“…An interesting characteristic of this stage, noted in both GUI victims and aboulic patients, is that of the 'empty mind' or a consciousness devoid of any content. This lack of spontaneous mental activity and inability to concentrate was referred to in the camps as 'brain fag' [25] or a 'mental incapacitation' [3], whilst one sea survivor described having, '…a mind like mush' [35] that are associated with difficulties in activating mental strategies to support goal-directed behavior [37]. Patients will express the feeling that their mind is empty although behavioural, cognitive and emotional abilities can become normal under external stimulation.…”

“…In the initial phase of a self or assisted recovery from GUI a person begins to make his or her first adjustment to the new world in which they find themselves and where old standards may no longer exist. As described by Lunden [25] and Newman [71], the survivor 'licks his wounds and wakes up', begins to take an interest in his surroundings and tries to make his environment as habitable as possible. Once more men begin to shave, and to undress to sleep.…”