Considerations on schizophrenia in farmers

Abstract

This is a preliminary study about the schizophrenic reaction as produced and developed among French Canadian farmers. After a brief summary of human functioning in this subculture, we have examined at St-Jean de Dieu Mental Hospital the social history of young schizophrenic farmers, paying special attention to the following areas: mental development, physical illnesses, schooling, work, delusional material and ideas of reference, parental acceptance or rejection. After a psychosexual and physical development considered as normal by the family, the young schizophrenic quits school after the 5th grade. Described as shy but hard working, he is known to drink heavily during the week end: usually he does not mingle with girls. The importance of religion in his “milieu” is evident if you consider the unusual amount of religious material in the delusions and the ideas of reference and grandeur of the patient. Identification to God whether in His sufferings or His triumph is quite frequent. When recovered from the acute phase of psychosis, the young schizophrenic is well received by his family. In brief some preliminary conclusions are drawn. 1) Psychoanalytic treatment and deep psychotherapy are not usually indicated or successful in dealing with his disintegrating ego. 2) So far as the acute phase is cleared by biological treatment, the patient should be returned home rapidly. 3) His religious ideas should be more carefully scrutinized to get a better understanding of his emotional problems. 4) A hebephrenic reaction does not necessarily indicate a poorer prognosis than a paranoid one. 5) Heredity seems better known among them, not especially more productive of schizophrenia.