The authors first define dissociation, describe it as a functionally adaptive process, and suggest that it may be an instinctive defense. The authors suggest that the absence of appropriate dissociation in the face of emotionally overwhelming events may lead to psychosis or other serious mental disturbances. The authors then describe three cases of psychogenic amnesia in previously healthy soldiers with no family or personal history of dysfunction. The first case of amnesia was observed in a soldier who witnessed a member of his company decapitated by a shell, the second in a soldier who saw his fiancee mortally wounded by a bomb, and the third in a sergeant who gave an order that led to the deaths of 122 men.
