SOCIAL CLASS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY. SOCIAL CLASS, SURVIVAL, AND RESPONSE OF SELF-SELECTED PATIENTS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH SENIOR MEDICAL STUDENTS.

Abstract

In a survey of five years of experience in an undergraduate teaching program of psychiatry in medical education, we found that when we attempted to work psychotherapeutically with all patients applying for treatment, without selection according to models of treatability, differences among the social classes tended to level out and to become relatively insignificant. In comparing three groups of patients in our population, those who continued, those who declined interviews, and those who dropped out, we again found no significant differences in their social class distribution. We did find, however, that these groups seemed dissimilar in the stability of their social adjustment. This paper reports on some of the characteristics of our patient population during the first five years (1956-1960) of the program. It describes the patients' participation and makes some comparisons with published reports from other psychiatric clinics and teaching centers. In an earlier paper, 1 we described the