Family Setting and the Urban Distribution of Schizophrenia

Abstract

A number of studies have shown that the incidence of schizophrenic illness (as measured by first admissions to mental hospitals) is high in the central areas of large cities and diminishes progressively towards the suburbs (Fans and Dunham, 1939; Dunham, 1947; Hare, 1956). Two main hypotheses have been advanced to account for this distribution. The first, the “breeder” hypothesis, is that social factors in the central areas are causal for schizophrenia and the particular factor most likely to be responsible is that loosely called “social isolation”. The second, the “attraction” hypothesis, is that the social disorganization or anonymity characteristic of the central areas attracts unstable and schizoid persons, either because such persons are unable to maintain themselves in better areas or because they wish to avoid the intimate personal relations of family life.