William Sargant - World War II

World War II

On the outbreak of war in September 1939 Sargant returned to Britain to find that the Maudsley had been evacuated and divided into two—one half going to Mill Hill School in North London and the other half setting up a hospital in the old Belmont Workhouse near Sutton, Surrey. Sargant was sent, along with H.J. Shorvon, clinical director Eliot Slater, and medical superintendent Louis Minski to Belmont workhouse—renamed the Sutton Emergency Medical Service (in 1953 the name of the hospital would revert to Belmont). The hospital, which took both civilian and military patients, was jointly controlled by the Ministry of Health and London County Council. Sargant described his frustration when London County Council medical advisors tried to curb his experimentation with new treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery (also called leucotomy) but, as he said "we generally got our own way in the end". They were, for example, only allowed to carry out individual psychosurgical operations with the approval of the Council advisors. When the doctors advised against operation, Sargant got round this by sending patients to be operated on by Wylie McKissock at St George's Hospital, (where Eliot Slater was temporarily in charge of the psychiatric department). It was, he said, 'doing good by stealth'. But critics saw him as someone of extreme views who was cruel and irresponsible and refused to listen to advice; some suggested that he was motivated by repressed anger rather than a desire to help people. Sargant selected neurotic patients, especially those with obsessional ruminations, for operation, which carried with it a significant risk of death, personality deterioration, epileptic seizures, and incontinence. After the Dunkirk evacuation the Sutton Emergency Medical Service received large numbers of military psychiatric casualties and Sargant developed abreaction techniques - patients would relive traumatic experiences under the influence of barbiturates. He also used modified insulin treatment, electroconvulsive treatment and sedation in the treatment of military patients. During the war Sargant wrote, together with Eliot Slater, a textbook - An introduction to physical methods of treatment in psychiatry, which was to run to 5 editions and be translated into several languages. In 1940 he married Peggy Glen whom he had met when she worked as a volunteer in the laboratory at Belmont. (There were no children)