There is a wide variety of training programmes in psychiatry in the United States. There are such programmes at most well-known Medical Schools and Universities; at various clinics, some of international reputation; at the psychiatry departments of many large city hospitals, and at many of the state hospitals.

This paper has three separate yet interrelated aims. First, it sets out to describe a series of clinical phenomena and attempts to show that they arise from a common source. Secondly, the consideration of this data may possibly amplify statements which have been made in the past regarding the nature of mental activity. Thirdly, there seems reason to believe that some of the phenomena described may help to provide a more rigorous definition of the transference concept.

The psychiatry of childhood is a subject which is growing and changing in many important ways. Not only are there more consultants in this specialty than there were a few years ago, but the scope of their work has greatly increased. The importance and responsibility of the child psychiatrist's work is no longer disputed and it is now generally agreed that the consultant in this field must have a thorough and suitable training. In 1951 and in 1960 the Council of the R.M.P.A. approved documents on this matter. It now seems appropriate, in view of the developments in the subject in the last five years, to give further amplification of earlier statements.

Tredgold (1948) points out that the “importance of studying the mental health of British troops in the Far East … is unlikely to have diminished with the end of the war,” and he emphasizes that “as long as conscription exists, the mental health of the young man doing his military service will be of great importance to the welfare of the community.” For this latter reason the writer has thought it desirable to report some of the experience he gained during 1948. At that time, he was one of the two psychiatrists stationed in Singapore who dealt with the vast majority of the psychiatric casualties that occurred in the Far East.