Showing papers on "Mental health published in 1973"

Adult sex roles and mental illness.

Abstract: This paper looks at the relationship between adult sex roles and mental illness.A fairly precise definition of mental illness is used limiting it to functional disorders characterized by anxiety (neurosis) and/or mental disorganization (psychosis). A number of characteristics of the woman's role in modern industrial societies that might promote the development of mental illness are discussed. The rates of mental illness for men and women following Wolrd War II are then compared by looking at community surveys, first admissions to mental hospitals, psychiatric treatment in general hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics, private outpatient psychiatric care, and the practices of general physicians. These data uniformly indicate that adult women have higher rates of mental illness than adult men. A survey of other disorders which appear to be a response to stress also shows women to have higher rates than men. Alternatives to the role explanation of the observed relationships are shown to be inadequate.

Human Ethology: Personal Space Reiterated.

Abstract: One of the pitfalls of interdisciplinary studies is that the researcher may be unaware of relevant work already accomplished on the other side of the traditional disciplinary barrier. Thus, I recently initiated studies of human personal space and flight distance, with the rather naive impression that I would be introducing social scientists to a unique perspective while providing biologists with a wholly new study species, homo sapiens. I was unaware of the work of Robert Sommer and his students and of the concern already lavished on problems of human personal space (see Leibman, 1970 for a recent review of the burgeoning literature). The following results are therefore presented as a wholly independent corroboration of certain earlier studies (notably Felipe and Sommer, 1966) as well as

The grief of soldiers: Vietnam combat veterans' self-help movement.

Abstract: While the government has claimed few “psychiatric casualties” among Vietnam war veterans, most symptoms are delayed in onset, due to emotional anesthesia brought on by a combination of combat trauma and the military's counter-guerrilla training, which discourages grief and intimacy. This paper describes the symptoms reported by veterans, and their efforts in launching a self-help movement of group sessions and other activities, outside the auspices of a Veterans Administration that they find unresponsive to their needs. The involvement in the veterans' movement of mental health professionals is described, and the inadequacy of the traditional therapist-patient relationship is discussed.

Training family therapists by setting learning objectives.

Abstract: A method of defining therapist variables in family therapy by stating objectives of training is proposed. The authors discuss its potential importance for educating a variety of mental health workers and for evaluative research. Learning objectives pertain to three kinds of skills—perceptual, conceptual, and executive—and the levels of necessary skills are outlined for basic (beginning), advanced, and experienced family therapists.

Approaches to the Interpretation of Relationships in the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix

Abstract: The author was supported by a National Institute of General Medical Sciences Training Program in Methodology and Statistics (GMO-1526) and by postdoctoral support from Professors William H. Sewell and Robert M. Hauser during the writing of this chapter. Computer analyses were supported by a grant to Professor Sewell from the National Institute of Mental Health (M-6275). Computer facilities were provided by the Madison Academic Computing Center. The author wishes to thank Robert M. Hauser, Arthur S. Goldberger, and Robert P. Althauser for making invaluable comnments on an earlier version of this chapter. The responsibility for the contents rests entirely with the author.

The concept of personality in Confucian thought.

Abstract: (1973). The Concept of Personality in Confucian Thought. Psychiatry: Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 191-202.

Oral contraceptives pyridoxine and depression.

Abstract: Taking steroid hormones for the control of ovulation may be associated with depressive mood changes in women who are predisposed to depression. The author postulates that such depression may in som...

The Importance of Childhood Experience in relation to Problems of Marriage and Family-Building

Abstract: An investigation into the childhood experiences of two groups of mothers is described. One group (probands) had previously acknowledged separations from parents, the other (controls) had denied them. However, it was found that many of the control group had also experienced childhood separations from their parents within the definition used here. There were significantly more marital and infant problems among the `separated' women than among those not separated. Implications for mental health and further research are briefly discussed.

Objective performance outcomes associated with two approaches to training mental health technicians in milieu and social-learning programs.

Abstract: Two groups (A* — 28) of nonprofessional trainees, selected from a high unemployment area, received training in the conduct of two highly specified institutional treatment programs. The first group received sequential training with the professional staff first conducting academic instruction, followed by on-the-floor practicum. The second group received abbreviated academic instruction by the professional staff integrated with clinical observation, followed by on-the-floor practicum supervised by experienced technicians. All trainees were evaluated for two six-week periods of clinical performance, one period while still under instructor supervision and one period while functioning independently. Goodness of performance was determined from continuous 10minute time samples obtained by trained observers. Although the sequential/ professional mode of training had previously been found to be associated with higher academic test performance, the integrated/technical mode of training was found to be associated with better on-tho-floor performance. Both groups of trainees performed better on the social-learning than on the milieu program, although goodness of performance was remarkable in both. Goodness of performance was maintained for both groups in both programs after supervision was faded. The relationship of attitudinal differences, academic performance, and civil service ratings with objective performance was also investigated.

Crime or disease

Abstract: "RIME IS a symptom of disease.') I want to examine this paradox; { for the sake both of brevity and simplicity, confining attention to the cases where the cnme is that of individuals and not of states, and where the disease is the mental disorder of the individual offender and not the metaphorical disease of the society in which he appears.2 It is a paradox perhaps rarely defended, explicit and unqualified; though certainly it is tacitly accepted or half-accepted by many psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and psychologically-trained social workers concerned with juvenile delinquency and adult crime. Yet Dr. J. R. Rees, a leading traditional psychiatrists in his Clark Hall J ecture on Mental Health and the Oftender said:

A short textbook of preventive medicine for the tropics

Abstract: The tropical environment health statistics epidemiology infections through the gastro-intestinal tract infections through the skin infections through the respiratory tract arthropod-borne infections nutritional disorders occupation - health and disease genetics and health heat disorders the organization of health services family health mental health environmental health - sanitation health education international health planning.

A study of prediction and outcome in a mental health crisis clinic.

Abstract: Sixty-eight patients who came voluntarily to a crisis intervention clinic were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Those in the first group received immediate intervention therapy while those in the second were put on a waiting list. By the end of six weeks (and after minor changes in the makeup of the groups were taken into account) there was no significant difference in the psychiatric morbidity scores of the two groups; both had improved. The authors used a variety of pretreatment and posttreatment measures and found that the best predictor of a patient's condition at the end of six weeks was his pretreatment psychiatric morbidity score. The authors conclude that individuals vary in both their reactions to life crises and their therapeutic needs and that the central issue may not be the recovery itself, but the difficulty and pain with which it is achieved.

Disaster and mental health intervention.

Abstract: Major disasters offer an important opportunity for the community psychiatrist to put into practice many of the principles of community mental health. By reaching out to the victims and primary care givers during the crisis, the development of posttraumatic symptoms can be averted. This entails a major departure from the traditional role of the mental health professional. This paper explores the psychological reactions to a major school bus, train accident and the intervention techniques that were utilized by a community mental health center as a response to this disaster.