Institutionalism and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study of Three Mental Hospitals 1960-1968

by J. K. Wing , G. W. Brown

• ISBN13: 9780521112802
• ISBN10: 052111280X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book studies the relationship between institutionalism and schizophrenia in the lives of mental patients. The authors observed schizophrenic patients in three different mental hospitals over a period of eight years. Their conclusions are important for the better management of institutions and for the future of extra-mural mental health services. The lives of long-term schizophrenic patients are strictly limited by their institutionalised environments, which often produce negative effects. For example, patients are especially vulnerable to social understimulation, reacing with apathy and withdrawal. On the positive side, symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations may actually decrease during institutionalisation. The interesting approach to the positive and negative effects of institutionalisation on schizophrenics will give this book a wide readership in psychiatry, social psychology and the social sciences as well as among social workers, nurses and occupational therapists.

Table of Contents

Disease and the social environment

The design of the study and methods of measurement

The three mental hospitals

The nature of institutionalism in mental hospitals

Differences between the hospitals in 1960

Changes in patients and environment, 1960-1964

Changes in the three hospital compared, 1960-1968

The numerical data illustrated by a descriptive account of selected wards and representative patients

Comparative survey of schizophrenic patients in an American county hospital, 1964

Institutionalism and schizophrenia: summary, discussion and conclusions

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