navy diving school

[united states coast guard training film.nonclassified. copyright 1944 by paramount pictures inc.] [the inside story] [foreword. the most misunderstood of all humanills are those due to problems of the mind. people still react to many of the false ideasof past ages.] [there are, frankly, definite mental illnessesof various sorts but the source of most mental problems is simply emotional disturbance.] [this causes as much if not more human painand suffering and maladjustment of the person than does organic illness.]

[it is, of course, impossible to fully coverthis subject in any single book or picture, but this presentation, made for you,] [endeavors to clarify the most common, fundamentaltroubles that beset us as a result of emotional upset.] [a newborn baby is shown] this is the beginning of patrick jones. from this time on, his life is going to bea constant conflict. reality, necessity, and duty; opposing desires,dreams, and distractions. these conflicts exist in every human being,and we must learn how to deal with them.

ten years later, he is still immature in thoughtand action. thinking, acting, pat jones, who can raisemore hell than any kid on the block. [fire cracker explodes and his father yellsat him] he has plenty of fun, some of it not exactlyin accord with adult ideas of peace and quiet, but all in the routine pattern of boyhood. it makes him feel a little important to hecklehis father. not in any spirit of mean-ness, but becausethe old man represents authority and discipline. [fire cracker explodes under a tin can] yes, over the years dad has learned that firecracker shooting must be restricted at times.

and this is going to hurt dad more than itdoes pat. [dad brings pat inside the house] as pat grows older, he finds it pleasant tohave people make a fuss over him. like the time when he won first prize in aninterscholastic contest. or when he hurt his knee in the championshipfootball game and so covered himself with glory that everyone made over and waited onhim. he was the four-star local hero and he lovedit, as who wouldn't. inside himself, unconsciously, pat will alwayscarry with him this memory. and dad was proud as a peacock, he showedthe newspaper clippings until they were worn

out. this is home and it's great, friendly andprotective. home means mom's deep-dish apple pie, so gooddad always had three pieces. and it's sitting around listening to the radio,playing a little gin rummy with the old man. it's where he can call up margie, wheneverhe likes. ask her to the movies, or to a dance, or just down to the drugstore for a soda. or if he feels like being alone, he can goup to his own room. there's something mighty comfortable aboutyour own room. and he's a man on his own, too. paying hisown way, earning his own living.

patrick jones, junior foreman, holding downa job, with a paycheck every saturday, and a good one for a guy of his age. jones: patrick r. jones. paymaster: patrick r. jones. i see they'reclosing you out pat? jones: closing me out? i quit. paymaster: bill goss. goss: bill goss. sorry you're leavin', jones. jones: i'm getting a better job. so long. narrator: and he could quit his job wheneverhe liked, for whatever reason he liked.

overnight, his home life is left behind andhe's one of millions of men, each one a seaman jones. that means he isn't necessarily our seamanjones. this seaman jones may have graduated fromone of the ritziest colleges in new england. or he could be seaman rabinovitz, who nevermade it beyond sixth grade of a public school. this one could've been one of the seven swensonkids from a farm. or o'brien, who never knew his folks and wasraised in an orphanage. but, whoever a man is you can tell a lot abouthim by what's in his heart. seaman jones may be a little along in a coupleof years and have a wife and kids.

then again, he could just be a kid himself,and still lookin' them over, if you know what i mean. or he could be the boy who's been going steadywith the girl who's always been his, and always will be. [take care of yourself. my darling] so let's look at the inside story of thisseaman jones. who's gone from this -- to this. [patrick shown at his old job, to him in acoast guard uniform] from mom's deep-dish apple pie to a mess line.

from his own room, to this. [a full bunk dorm with men wrestling eachother] noise, confusion, no privacy. the change is a big one and he's having a hardtime adjusting himself to this new life. seaman jones is homesick, unhappy, and disturbed.lots of things seem to be combining to worry him. he feels that he is being unfairly neglectedby his family and his girl. he's had no mail for four days now. and it seems as though he's the only one whomisses.

he's having trouble concentrating on his classwork. doesn't seem able to follow. and he's the boy who used to win the silvercups in high school. all-in-all, this is no picnic, says seamanjones. he finds himself panicky and lost in a crowdof countless men, where everybody looks alike and is treated alike. no glory here like the time he was a footballhero. he's really worried about himself. so much so, that one night... [jones is sleeping in the bunk and talks inhis head]

jones: mustn't forget my general orders. [he hears yelling of orders] jones: how will i pass inspection? will iget my liberty this weekend? are we going out tomorrow? will i get my stripes?exam coming up tomorrow. gee, i've got the jitters. am i going nuts? exams, drills, inspections, exams, drills- [jones wakes up] jones: my god, maybe i'm going nuts; maybethey'll drive me crazy! narrator: then, on top of all his other problems,seaman jones, who'd always been a gay, friendly

guy, who got along with other people found himself unable to enter into the generaleasy companionship of the men with whom he was living and working. [men gambling] instead of joining in, he resented the sometimesloud, rowdy fun in the barracks and nobody seemed to care how he felt. well, if all that isn't enough to troubleone guy, all of the sudden the knee he twisted in that grand and glorious football game wentback on him. it really hurt, plenty. but at least he canhave that taken care of.

and a mighty good doctor looks it over withthe greatest care. but the doctor can't find anything organicallywrong with the knee. now the most startling thing about this upsetis that seaman jones isn't goldbricking. his knee really hurts and it's not imaginationeither. he feels the pain, that's how he knows it'sthere. that's important and it's frightening, toobecause, on top of trouble with studies, and nightmares, and loneliness, what can be wrong? he better do something about it. he does the most sensible thing he could possiblydo: goes to the mental health department and

sees the psychiatrist. for naturally, an emotional upset must betreated differently from an organic illness. jones tells his story and the doctor is neithersurprised nor alarmed, for this isn't a new story to him, amazing as it is to jones. and he knows the answer. an answer that jonescan understand because there aren't a lot of strange highfaluting terms. doctor: today, we're making a scientific studyof mind and we're finding some very encouraging things. now, this nervous breakdown that you're afraidof, for instance. well, the truth is nobody

has a nervous breakdown, ever. jones: they don't? doctor: nerves, our physical nerves, don'tbreak. we do get into mental and emotional moodsthat make us pretty unhappy, the results of all the difficulties and conflicts that besetus, that we've reacted to, that we've had difficultyadjusting to. now, your symptoms suggest that you are insuch a mood. a mood of anxiousness. even your physical symptoms, like the achingknee you told me about, can have an emotional cause. i'll explain that in a moment.

anxiousness is quite a common mood. it makes a person focus his attention muchmore closely on himself. perhaps he notices his heart beating or hismuscles tensing. jones: yes. doctor: people often think in this mood ofanxiousness that it's leading to a mental illness. actually, it almost never does. perhaps i can help you if i give you an ideaof how your mind works. you see, jones, emotions actually can causereal physical pain. the conscious mind is a pleasant sunny placewhere normal thoughts have free reign.

the unconscious mind is dark and mysteriousand harbors such thoughts as: "i'm lonesome. nobody pays any attention tome. i wish i were dead. i must be losing my mind." these thoughts are constantly trying to getto the conscious mind to get past the censor who polices the band. [cartoon of characters scaling wall guardedby censor] it's his job to keep them out. [a walnut was thrown at the censor's head] censor: hey! doctor: here's a little thought that keepspopping up.

[walnut turns into a metaphoric thought] walnut-boy: i'm lonesome. [censor throws thought back to unconsciousside] suicide man: i wished i was dead. censor: huh? what did you say? suicide man: i said i wished i was dead. [this thought shoots himself in the head witha toy gun] blind man: uh, i must be stupid; i just can'tsee things clearly. [blind man falls over the wall into consciousmind]

censor: outside, bums! two-headed man: i'm my own worst enemy! fearful man: stop pickin' on me! someone'salways pickin' on me! unicyclist: nobody pays any attention to me.they're blind to real talent! huh, watch this. [unicyclist cycles very fast but runs oversomeone and his head is blown off] man who got run over: i must be losing mymind! censor: holy cats! i must be losing mine! [censor catches all of the thoughts and sendsthem back to the unconscious side of the wall] censored out of the conscious mind, theseself-pitying thoughts tumble into the lap

of old unconscious mind, the dormant parent of all your emotions, andarouse him with their clamor. [a sleeping giant is woken up by the thoughts] they goad him to find another way for themto assert themselves on your conscious mind. so, this brute, who never forgets anythingthat ever happened to you, remembers a certain incident. unconscious mind: hmm ... hmm ... [flashback of when jones hurt his knee playingin the football championship] which got you a nice lot of sympathetic attentionin the past.

an incident which your conscious mind mayhave completely forgotten, but your unconscious remembers and now he knows just what to do. unconscious mind: i've got it, boys! intothe car with you! [excited talking amongst the self-pityingthoughts as they get into the car] [switches: nervous system. transportationco. arm. neck. eye. pelvis. head. ear. feet. knee] [unconscious mind pushes the car into a tunneland flips the switch labeled knee] [car travels down the spine to the knee] [thoughts come out of car with demolishingtools and begin to hit the knee]

two-headed man: why didn't we think of thisbefore? walnut boy: i'm not lonesome anymore! man on jackhammer: i've got some attentionnow, this'll really make him hurt! doctor: and that's why your knee hurts, eventhough there's nothing physically wrong with it. jones: well, i'm sure glad to hear that. doctor: a lot of boys feel about the way youdo. there's another seaman in here a few daysago named scott. a big strapping lad, who during his civiliandays never had anything wrong with him.

he won golden glove tournaments and was avery pretty fighter indeed. [flashback of scott knocking out the otherfighter and winning the match] doctor: then he landed in the coast guardand found himself no more important than any other seaman. he found himself being ordered around by apetty officer half his size; being told what to do and how to do it. having his hat straightened for him and evenhaving the lint dusted off his clothes. he, a champion, in his own right. and even in the classroom, he found himselfthrown for a loss by simple navigation.

he just couldn't turn out an adequate notebook. so, one day he turned up at sick bay witha bad stomach ache. a physical exam, x-ray, and laboratory studiesproved there was nothing physically wrong, so he was sent to the psychiatrist. what went on in his mind was something likethis ... he had a lot of self-pitying thoughts runningaround in his mind for all his toughness. and of course, he wouldn't let his consciousmind think that. [censor catches self-pitying thoughts andthrows them back to the unconscious mind side] doctor: the censor chases them into his unconsciousmind and old man unconscious decides what

seaman scott needs is a darn good foolproof excuse for not doingso well right now. and he takes care of that in his own way. [self-pitying thoughts get into car] stomach] [unconscious mind pushes the car into a tunneland flips the switch labeled stomach] [car travels down to the stomach] jackhammer man: hey fellas come on! let'sget off of there! get to work! come on! [thoughts come out of car with demolishingtools and chat excitedly]

fearful man: they're always pickin' on me,now it's my turn to do the picking! doctor: everybody has emotional disturbancesand nobody is really strong enough to control his emotions absolutely. i have some notes here that i'll give you. look them over. they may clear up some ofthe things that have been bothering you. jones: thank you, sir. narrator: so, seaman jones did study the notesand found them even more helpful than he'd hoped. they were interesting, understandable, andthey made sense.

[mental health] [inside of us, there is always a battle goingon between what we want to do, and what we have got to do...] seaman: get the professor, would ya? jones: some military doctor gave me, how togo nuts in three easy lessons, or something. kelley: hey, you ought to give it to someof my petty officers. i've got a guy over me that's a real frankenstein.you know it worries me. jones: oh yeah, well, it says here that: "maybe you're blaming your petty officer becauseyou have a sneaking feeling that you can't

keep up with the rest of the fellas." kelley: you mean it's me that's nuts? jones: everybody does funny things. listento this: "inside of us, there is always a battle goingon between what we want to do, and what we've got to do." kelley: yeah, that's the way i feel alright. somehow, whenever i get a dirty job to do,no matter what kind, maybe like swabbing down the deck, i can't seem to think straight. all of the sudden i ain't seaman kelley nomore, i'm somebody else.

i look at all that deck that's gotta be swabbed,and ugh. narrator: and his mind is a million milesaway as he dreams himself into an out-of-the-world hero. this time as a spy in hirohito's palace. a sort of sea-going dick tracy, eh kelley? [kelley lifts up part of his shirt to reveala button] [secret operator 22 1/2] [kelley continues swabbing the floor] [palace doors open to reveal hirohito]

[kelley pulls out a gun from his pants] [kelley goes after hirohito with a gun] [gunshots are heard] of course there has to be a reward for a daringdeed like that. [cheering] and it's a real double barreled homecomingfor, yup, admiral kelly, right down fifth avenue. crowd: yay, kelley! come on, kelley! and this is so real he can hear the crowdyelling his name.

petty officer: kelley! kelley! kelley! getto work! kelley: yeah, sure. sure, sure. that's why i can't stand thatpetty officer. jones: well, is it because he's a bad egg,or just because he had to pull you back to reality? kelley: no, don't get me in no argument, son.well, all right, maybe it was. come on, give out with more of our problems,mr. antony. jones: well, maybe some of you guys don'tlike these man-to-man combat drills. seaman: i always did hate them.

kelley: well look, you don't need to be nosawbones to figure that one out. you got...ah...inferiority dingus. yea, it'slike what they call an inferiority complication. jones: it says here: "when you have a feelingof inadequacy, when you feel you can't keep up with the competition," "you may begin to blame the task you're havingtrouble with, instead of realizing it is your own weakness that is troubling you." seaman: well, does it tell me how i can getcured? second seaman: well sure, you've got to knowsomething about it. now everyone has inferiority. it's not thatthat's bad.

inferiority helps us a lot of times becausewe try to improve ourselves. now if we do something that turns out good,that helps us, but there's always inferiority in all people. seaman: yeah, but that's just horse sense. jones: the doc says, "mental health is justapplying common sense to your emotional problems." kelley: sure, only books got to put it infancy words, so the guy who wrote it can get three bucks a copy for it. jones: hey, get this: "it is hard to recognizejealousy in oneself." "for example, most of us secretly wish wecould be all-american athletes.

"because we can't, we like to say athletesare dumbbells, all brawn and no brains." seaman: and that, my fellow scientist, iswhat is known as the sour grapes complex. second seaman: that's maybe why we say mostbeautiful girls are dumb. kelley: you think that's bad? jones: no, but if we know what it is, we canuse it to help us to get ahead. seaman: say, where did you get that fortune-tellingbunch of notes anyway? jones: the doc gave it to me. a couple ofweeks ago i started to get ... well, i thought my nerves would snap. seems they can't snap. your nervous systemis just like anything else.

it gets tired and upset, but a good night'ssleep, or a little play and relaxation, it's okay again. nerves don't break; it's our feelings thatget the best of us. seaman: say, no kidding. you know what i'mafraid of? second seaman: what, work? seaman: no, i'm afraid of being a coward. second seaman: gee, me too. seaman: no, sometimes i can't think of anythingelse. i know you'll think i'm a dope or something,but sometimes i go to chapel and i sit there,

and i start sweating. seaman: and i say, "keep me from being a coward.oh god, "what am i going to do if i get into actionsomewhere and i get so scared i turn traitor?" narrator: that's a natural terrible fear,the fear of doing this: running away. a fear we all have. yet it's a normal fear.for it's deep-rooted in every animal. we call it the instinct of self-preservation. animals react to it instinctively in orderto protect themselves. so we know that we may be afraid, but fearand cowardice are not the same. in fact, fear is an emotion which has alwaysprotected us.

for example, here's an american submarinecruising quietly. suddenly, an enemy bomb crashes into it. it doesn't explode, but it's live, and itcan any second, and it's jammed in an almost inaccessible place below. only this skinny boy can get at it. he must remove the detonator even though hedoesn't know how. he's scared blue. he can be guided only by instructions froma loud speaker. but here's a great thing about fear.

sometimes, in this case for instance, it canactually help. for it causes an instantaneous change to occurin our bodies so that every muscle and organ goes into high gear, to help us through the emergency, as it'shelping this seaman, while he's literally got the sub and the livesof the crew in his hands. stimulated by fear, the heart pumps fasterto carry more blood through the arteries. the glands step up their secretions of vitalizingfluids into the system. and he's doing what he has to do, as frightenedas you will ever be. fear is acting helpfully to heighten all responses.

waste materials which might slow us down arequickly thrown off and there comes an amazing intensity of concentration to carry us throughemergencies. you can see the terror in this man's face, but by stepping up his physical reactionsto help him through the most dangerous crisis of his life, fear has become his ally insteadof his enemy. aided by fear, he's done it. now seaman jones, and the rest of his mateswho were troubled, understand more fully some of the sources and causes of their worries. and as a result, jones is no longer lonelyand out of things. he's one of the guys.

he's learned what his mistakes were and correctedsome of them. he's adjusted to his new environment and he'sdoing all right. the same is true of seaman scott. he's all straightened out now and is doinga swell job. he even thinks of those bugaboo petty officersas good guys now. and this one's a swell ping pong player, too. scott has finally found the right outletsfor his energy and ambition. and kelly the dreamer, he's not dreaming now. he's having a good time and he's studyinghard, for he's learned that it's only through

our own efforts that we achieve real satisfaction. yes, all people must learn to live and workin harmony, must assume new responsibilities and take pride in their duties. that's what is now reflected in these men'sfaces as they get combat orders. anderson looks confident. kelly is alert and ready. scott is cool, steady warrior, and seamanjones is going after new recognition. so then, we see how trouble is stayed, aswe learn even a little about our minds, and thereby protect ourselves against someof the unconscious trends to which we are

subject. sound mental health is our nation's greatestasset, and this we must maintain. with it, let us have pride. pride in our corps, and in our service. and we must have faith and hope, in our cause,our way of life, and for a better world tomorrow. [the end. mg-4068. 1944]