Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:17:02.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Broken homes among attempted suicides and psychiatric out-patients: A comparative study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

John G. Bruhn
John G. Bruhn*
Affiliation:
Grace–New Haven Hospital Psychiatric Out-Patient Clinic, New Haven, Connecticut; Medical Research Council Unit, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Many investigators have pointed out the social and psychological meanings of broken homes and their effects on individuals' behaviour. Goldfarb (3) stressed the importance of normal parental relationships both in ego formation and in the transfer of ego functions from parent to child. Thompson (16) maintains that the loss of a familiar perceptual framework may be as equally important as the loss of a love-object. Bowlby (2) points out that love deprivation and superficial relationships frequently lead to maladjustment and delinquency. Kardiner (4) emphasizes the importance of the social and cultural values of tender emotion as the basis of social cohesion and culture. Several research workers have found high incidences of broken homes among schizophrenics (Pollack et al., 10; Lidz, 5; Oltman et al., 8) and among neurotics (Madow and Hardy, 6; McGregor, 7). Other research workers have been concerned with the incidence of broken homes among individuals who attempt suicide (Palmer, 9; Reitman, 11; Sainsbury, 12; Batchelor and Napier, 1; Stengel and Cook, 14; Walton, 18; Teichner, 15; Toolan, 17; Simon, 13). However, the majority of the latter group of studies have lacked comparative control groups. The present study investigates several factors of social disorganization which distinguish a group of attempted suicides with a history of broken homes from a group of psychiatric out-patients who have not attempted suicide but have a history of broken homes. All comparisons will be between attempted suicides and psychiatric out-patients from broken homes.

Type
Social Psychiatry
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 108 , Issue 457 , November 1962 , pp. 772 - 779
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1962 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Batchelor, I. R. C. and Napier, M. B. (1953). Brit. J. Delinq., 4.Google Scholar
2 Bowlby, J. (1953). Child Care and the Growth of Love. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
3 Goldfarb, Wm. (1955). “Emotional and intellectual consequences of psychologic deprivation in infancy: a revaluation, in Psychopathology of Childhood (Hoch, and Zubin, , Eds). London: Grune ' Stratton.Google Scholar
4 Kardiner, Abram (1954). “Social stress and deprivation, in Beyond the germ theory (Galdston, I. Ed.). New York: Health Education Council.Google Scholar
5 Lidz, R. W. and Lidz, T. (1949). Am. J. Psychiat., 106, 332.Google Scholar
6 Madow, L. and Hardy, S. E. (1947). Am. J. Orthopsychiat., 17, 521.Google Scholar
7 McGregor, H. G. (1944). J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat., 7, 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Oltman, J. E., McGarry, J. J. and Friedman, S. (1952). Am. J. Psychiat., 108, 685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Palmer, D. M. (1941). J. Nerv. ' Ment. Dis., 93, 421.Google Scholar
10 Pollack, H. M. et al. (1939). Hereditary and Environmental Factors in the Causation of Manic-Depressive Psychoses and Dementia Praecox. New York: State Hospitals Press.Google Scholar
11 Reitman, F. (1942). J. Ment. Sci., 88, 580.Google Scholar
12 Sainsbury, Peter (1955). Suicide in London. Chapman ' Hall Ltd. Google Scholar
13 Simon, W. (1950). J. Nerv. ' Ment. Dis., 111, 451.Google Scholar
14 Stengel, E. and Cook, N. (1958). Attempted Suicide: Its Social Significance and Effects, Maudsley Monograph No. 4. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
15 Teicher, J. D. (1947). J. Nerv. ' Ment. Dis., 105, 283.Google Scholar
16 Thompson, Wm. R. (1955). Early environment—its importance for later behaviour, in Psychopathology of Childhood (Hoch, and Zubin, , Eds.). London: Grune ' Stratton.Google Scholar
17 Toolan, James M. (1962). Am. J. Psychiat., 118, 8, 719.Google Scholar
18 Walton, H. J. (1958). J. Ment. Sci., 104.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.