Commanders' Attitudes Toward the Nature,Causality, and Severity of Combat Stress Reaction

This study examines the attitudes of 176 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) com- manders to the nature, causality, and severity of combat stress reaction (CSR). Each commander was presented with 1 of 24 vignettes describing a CSR incident and was requested to fill out an attitudes questionnaire. The impact of the following variables on commanders' attitudes was as- sessed: casualty's rank, casualty's combat skill, presence of an additional physical injury, type of symptomatology, and respondent's background vari- ables. Findings revealed relative tolerance toward CSR casualties. On the whole, the commanders did not regard CSR as dangerous or as a sign of insanity. They considered the disorder more as battle shock and emotional breakdown than as malingering or softness. The reaction was thought to be more an outcome of what happened in the battle than a result of prewar psychological problems. CSR casualties with high combat skills, physical injury, low rank, or depressive symptoms, elicited more tolerant attitudes than those with low combat skills, no physical injury, high rank, or aggressive symptoms.