SynopsisThe former belief that immigrants always suffer from an excess of mental disorder is no longer valid, and the old rivalry between social selection and social causation hypotheses has lost much of its relevance. The mental health of a migrant group is determined by factors relating to the society of origin, factors relating to the migration itself, and factors operating in the society of resettlement; and all three sets need to be considered if one seeks to reduce or merely to understand the level of mental disorder in any immigrant group. Illustrations from each set of factors are presented, with indications of whether they appear to have general relevance or be related to specific mental disorders.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Although the belief that primitive man might be free from schizophrenia has joined the rest of the golden age myths, there is still a serious question respecting the severity or chronicity of the disease in many tropical peoples. In such peoples typical cases of schizophrenia are proportionately uncommon, and in their place one often meets an acute short-lasting psychosis, which may be indistinguishable from classical schizophrenia in its initial stages but which runs a much shorter course and carries a better prognosis.