Brooklyn Syndrome

The term Brooklyn Syndrome was coined during WWII by Navy psychiatrists who were tasked with examining recruits to establish if a recruit is neuropsychiatrically unfit to join the armed services[1].

Sometimes they would encounter recruits who seemed to be truculent and would have a sort of chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.

Initially regarded as a psychopathology, it occurred so frequently the physicians subsequently recognized it as a pattern of behavior characteristic of men from cities where men are seemingly overly argumentative or personally combative.

The Navy psychiatrists have learned by experience that such a recruit is not necessarily a psychiatric personality unfit for service; he may be a perfectly normal guy from Brooklyn.

The psychiatrists have christened this rather harmless, but irritating 'social pattern' the 'Brooklyn syndrome'.

[1] Wittson, Harris, and Hunt: An Evaluation of the Brief Psychiatric Interview in Journal of Psychology - 1943