New Data on Marriage and Mental Disease: The Incidence of Psychoses in the Widowed and the Divorced

Abstract

It may be regarded as an established fact that the incidence of mental disorder is much higher in the single than in the married. In a previous paper two possible explanations were discussed: 1. There is a selection by marriage, whereby individuals who are personally and socially handicapped tend to remain single. Among such possible marriage handicaps there are certain personality traits which correlate markedly with a predisposition towards certain forms of mental disease, in particular schizophrenia.