As the nation prepared to welcome the first of its returning prisoners of war, both military and private psychologists warned that the prisoners would be suffering from invisible wounds that may take years to heal.
According to Clinical Psychologist Charles Stenger, planning coordinator of the Veterans Administration P.O.W. program, the fact of imprisonment has a psychological impact that is "tremendous—an extreme and prolonged stress." This starts at the moment of capture. "That shock is about the most overwhelming, stupendous experience that can happen," says William N. Miller, a psychologist at the Navy's Center...