"When America declared war in 1941, personality tests were an important part of its therapeutic arsenal. Fourteen million inductees were tested, with the disturbing result that 14 percent were declared unfit due to neuropsychiatric disorders. The size of this figure shocked a postwar America...Was it possible to rebuild Europe, bolster the GNP, educate the young, and thwart the communist menace, if 14 percent of our able-bodied young men were judged less that sound? Congress didn't think so, nor did the media, who made mental health, and our lack of it, a staple of postwar reportage...
...Confronted by evidence that public sanity was more fragile than heretofore suspected, Congress responded with the National Mental Health Act...It's first appropriation...was targeted for research into the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, the education of psychiatrists and psychologists; and the establishment of a nationwide network of clinics..." In 1940 there were roughly 700 members of the American Psychological Association; by 1956 membership would surpass 15,000.