Working Class Mexican Psychiatric Outpatients

Abstract

THIS PAPER reports the results of a sociocultural and clinical investigation that was conducted on a sample of working class Mexican psychiatric outpatients. There is such social scientific and psychiatric interest in the mental health of the different social status groupings, but most of the work reported deals with American findings.^1-5 One of the aims of this study was to obtain in some detail demographic, cultural, and clinical characteristics of a sample of working class patients living in a different cultural setting. Although there are few formal psychiatric studies dealing with Mexico, there does exist considerable behavioral science data that touch on population and sociocultural characteristics of Mexicans.^6-15 Attempts at comparing in depth and with considerable rigor personality development in different nations (including Mexico and the United States) are currently underway.^16-19 There does exist, then, a body of background information that