ACTIVITY IN INITIAL INTERVIEWS WITH LOWER-CLASS PATIENTS.

Abstract

Psychotherapy of lower social class patients has been under study at Temple University Medical Center for two years. Review of the literature reveals that much has been written about the therapy of the lower social class patients * since the pioneering study of Hollingshead and Redlich. 16 Most of the studies agree that the lower class patient is less likely to seek psychiatric outpatient care, and when referred many are likely to drop out of treatment in a very short time. This high drop-out rate has been an important focus of the project. Rosenthal and Frank 23 at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic reported that 47% of their patients stopped treatment in less than six sessions; Overall and Aronson 20 found that 57% of the patients at University of Maryland Psychiatric Institute drop out after the first interview; Bahn and Norman 1 presenting