Psychosis and civilization : two studies in the frequency of mental disease / Herbert Goldhamer, Social Science Division, Rand Corporation, Andrew W. Marshall, Social Science Division, Rand Corporation.

New York : Free Press, 1949.

126 pages : illustrations ; cm

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Electronic reproduction. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access limited by licensing agreement.

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"The two studies presented in this volume complement each other. The first attempts to show, and in fact we believe does show, that there has been no increase in the frequency of the psychoses during the past one hundred years. The second examines in greater detail the frequency of major mental illnesses today and provides a convenient means of expressing this in terms of the risk of such illness during the individual's life span or some particular portion of it. Looked at from the standpoint of their implications for social welfare, the results of these two studies make a contrasting impression. The first provides a fairly agreeable view of the future, agreeable that is to a generation whose optimism often has to base itself on the conviction that at any rate things are not getting worse. Certainly there is comfort to be gotten from findings that dispel the gloomier expectations concerning the future mental health of the nation. Most of these are based on the belief that there has been, during the past generation, a steady increase in the frequency of the psychoses. This view is here shown to be unwarranted. The satisfaction to be derived from this is, however, somewhat dimmed by the findings of the second study which estimates the probability that a person who survives to a given age will be stricken by a serious mental illness of either an episodic or continuing nature. We have estimated that this chance is about 1 in 20 by the age of 45 and about 1 in 10 by the age of 65. In the light of this we are not likely to be led, by the results of our first study, to indulge in festive celebrations. Our findings give us warrant for emphasizing not that mental health is just as good today as it was in the past, but rather that mental health was just as bad in the past as it is now"--Foreword. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

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September 11, 2015

Includes bibliographical references.