PSYCHIATRIC WARFARE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01065A000600020046-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 12, 2006
• Sequence Number: 46
• Content Type: MF

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP80-01065A000600020046-0
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SUBJECT: Psychiatric Warfare
1. Paragraphs 2 and 3 contain my comments on Lt. Geiger's paper,
which he submitted to the Psychological Strategy Board.
2. Psychiatric warfare is not clearly defined in Lt. Geiger's paper,
though it is described as a facet of psychological warefare which aims
at reducing an enemy's will to fight by undermining the collective emotional
stability of target groups. In a sense, all psychological warfare operations
contribute to the emotional instability of the enemy by appealing to the
fears, suspicions, anxieties, and hostilities of the target audience, and
certainly all such operations seek to reduce the enemy's will to fight
or resist our policies. Never-the-less, the specific use of modern
psycho-ara tical concepts of emotional adjustment and maladjustment
in formulating specialized PW programs may be considered a separate field
within psychological warefare. However, a more thorough and professional
definition of techniques must be established. In order to arrive at such
a definition, the services of a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist,
a cultural anthropoligist, and a psycholthgiial warfare operator must
be employed in a combined effort. To be effective, any psychiatric
warefare operation would have to take into account the following:
1) the nature of human emotional adjustment with special emphasis on
the dynamics of mental mechanisms and the causes and effevts of abnormal
behavior, 2) the cultural behavior, norms, amd tension points of the
target audience, and 3) the ultimate goals to be achieved by the operation.
3. From Lt. Geiger's paper, it appears that psychiatric warfare would
be useful with enemy audiences mainly, since this type of warfare is
primarily intended as a means of underining collective emotional stability.
However, it could also be used against hostile minorities in friendly
and neutral countries. Perhaps also, the concept could be extended to
include a theory of counter-psychiatric warfare aimed at offsetting
enemy attempts to undermine the stability of friendly nations and groups.
In my opinion, the general concept of psychiatric warfare is worthy of
the time, money, and effort it would take to develop it into a sound
and oparable theory.
Operations Coordination Bra nch
Psychological Staff Division
, SECRET
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP80-01065A000600020046-0