The Association of Preadmission Symptoms with the Social Background of Mental Patients

Abstract

What is known about the symptoms of the functional psychoses has come mainly from observation of patients<i>after</i>hospitalization. In this research, we studied reports of symptomatic behavior<i>before</i>hospitalization narrated to hospital psychiatrists by families or friends of patients. Whereas the psychiatrist may ask what the meaning of expressed symptoms is to the disease process, the sociologist asks whether or not the ways in which the disease is expressed are modified by the social conditions, the manner of life, and the social demands of others in the patient's environment. Therefore, the informants' stories are particularly revelant to the sociologists' interests for they are about behavior witnessed and therefore about behavior that took place between the patient and others or at least in the presence of others. <h3>Source of Study Data</h3> Saint Elizabeth Hospital (the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare), which cares for