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Irish Immigrants, Pauperism, and Insanity in 1854 Massachusetts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

John W. Fox
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Extract

Edward Jarvis’s (1971 [1855]) study of insanity in 1854 Massachusetts still receives attention as an exemplary study of mental disorder. It is cited as the first American study of the “true” prevalence of mental illness in a general population (Dohrenwend 1975), the first American study to show that social standing (pauperism) was related to mental illness (ibid.), and the first American study to show that a substantial number of ill people were not receiving “professional” help (ibid.; Fox 1984). Likewise, Jarvis’s focus on social causation—social factors cause mental disorder, versus social selection, according to which mental disorder impairs social functioning and achievement—identified an important issue that still receives attention in the mental health literature (Dohrenwend 1975; Fox 1990; Turner and Wagenfeld 1967; Wheaton 1978).

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , Fall 1991 , pp. 315 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1991 

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