A rear unit for the treatment of combat reactions in the wake of the Yom Kippur war

Like most Israelis, we were taken by complete surprise at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and thus had not expected to be called upon to treat combat reactions. The therapeutic framework and system that we established for our unit was based on three components: (1) Theoretical literature from World Wars I and Ii, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War. (2) Direct knowledge acquired during Israeli wars-from the War of Independence onward. From these we learned how enormously important it is to prevent regression-or at least to prevent more regression than is optimal for early recovery. We also knew how important it is to enlist and foster all the positive resources of the soldier by ensuring activity-in particular, continuation of routine functioning and physical activity.