Social Class and Psychotherapy

Social Class and Psychiatric Treatment of Adults in the Mental Health Center

“…These general findings are a significant departure from the positive relationships found in the earlier studies conducted in several psychotherapeutic clinics Cole et al, 1962;Rosenthal and Frank, 1958;Brill and Storrow, 1964;Albronda et al, 1964) and in a variety of other types of psychiatric treatment organizations (Robinson et al, 1954;Hollingshead and Redlich, 1958;Gallagher et al, 1957;Kahn et al, 1957).…”

“…The mental health center clients have a social class distribution analogous to those of clients of the psychotherapeutic clinics reported in earlier studies, measured by the Hollingshead social class index (1957) Cole et al, 1962;Brill and Storrow, 1964;Albronda et al, 1964;Stern, 1975).…”

“…In one type of psychiatric treatment organization, the "psychotherapeutic clinic" exemplified in the university-related outpatient clinic of the 1950's and early 1960's, several research teams Cole et al, 1962;Rosenthal and Frank, 1958;Brill and Storrow, 1964;Albronda et al, 1964;Imber et al, 1955) discovered that what happened therapeutically to people who become psychiatric patients was, to "a significant degree, a function of their social class positions in the community" (Schaffer and Myers, 1954:88). The upper-and middle-class client was more likely than the lower-class client to be accepted for treatment and to be the recipient of extensive care in these clinics.…”

Treatment of the Socially Disadvantaged Alcoholic

“…Another optimistic note is that lower class patients can be successfully oriented to the principles of psychotherapy with the result that premature termination is prevented (i.e., Hoehn Saric et al 1964, Albronda et al 1964. This is being applied with promising results to the substance abusing client (i.e., Start & Kane 1985, Craigie & Ross 1980.…”

Social class and group therapy in a working class population

“…Albronda, Dean, and Starkweather (1964) found that lower-class patients are more likely to be treated with medication and less likely to be assigned to psychotherapy, stressing that the value system of upper--class therapists tends to lead them to see as untreatable many patients of the lower classes and thus no treatment is offered. Many studies (Brill & Storrow;Goin, Yamamoto, & Silverman, 1965;Garfield & Affiect, 1959;Lief, Lief, Warren, & Heath, 1961;Meyer, Spiro, & Slaughter, 1967;Rosen.thai & Frank, 1958) indicate that alcholics, psychotics, or those who require medication are often exduded.…”