ABSTRACT
When President John F.Kennedy was assassinated, I was on active duty as a psychiatrist in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy. As word of the tragedy was confirmed, our staff gathered to share observations, try to understand what had happened, and speculate on what might happen next. There was a great deal of anxiety in the first hours; some coupled news of the assassination with fears related to the Cuban missile crisis. In the midst of the confused messages we were hearing, one staff member rose to say he was going to call his broker to tell him to sell everything in his account. He had just heard that the stock market was in rapid decline and he feared he would lose all his investments. I suggested that he tell his broker to buy stocks instead, explaining that the panic would be resolved after the weekend when a state funeral and public mourning would restore faith in the government and reverse the sharp slump in the stock market.
