The current literature on social class and mental disease in America: Critique and bibliography

An exhaustive survey of the literature which has concentrated upon the relationship between social class and mental disease through the year 1966 is presented.

Abstract

This article presents an exhaustive survey of the literature which has concentrated upon the relationship between social class and mental disease. Studies through the year 1966 are included. For this survey, social class has been operationalized in terms of the following variables: income, occupation, prestige, residential area, or a composite index. Mental disease is operationalized in terms of clinical diagnosis, hospitalization classification, or psychiatric interview. The final section discusses trends in both theory and research over the past sixty-five years.