Report on an investigation concerning some psychological aspect of conscientious objectors
At the end of 1971, 176 conscripts, who had made an appeal to the Bill 'Conscientious Objections to Military Service', were subjected to a psychological examination, on voluntary basis. We did not select a representative group of conscientious objectors for the examination beforehand. When comparing afterwords, it seems that our group of conscientious objectors, corresponds quite well with the characteristics of the national amount of conscientious objectors. The conscientious objectors' parents react quite positively to their decision to refuse to serve in the army. The principal reasons why the examined group of conscientious objectors refused to serve, were, in the order of their occurrence:
- general moral motives,
- religious motives,
- political motives.
According to this research, it seems that the conscientious objectors had a normal psycho-sexual development. Homosexuality does not occur more of ten which them, than which students, for example. According to the conscientious objectors, the atmosphere at home, when they were young, was pleasant; moreover, the relation to their parents was considered positively by the consientious objectors. Furthermore, the conscientious objectors considered their I-ideal (such as I am in reality) quite positively, as well as their father. The identification with their father seems to have succeedeed.