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"Love is the goal of human nature and, individually as well as within a nation and among nations, it can be attained only by a complex process of maturation." Dr. Benedek states this in her study of the psychologic effects of war and then proceeds to describe this maturation.
The normal development of various kinds of interpersonal relationships and their disturbance by war form the foundation on which her book is built. Freudian concepts brought up to date and modified by Dr. Benedek are used for the framework. War literature and sketchy fragments of case histories constitute the bricks of the building.
Since children, adolescents, soldiers, their wives and their parents have been affected by war, almost all personality problems created by war are within the scope of the book. Much space is devoted to the differences between masculinity and femininity and to disturbances in their development. It is implied