The Relative Incidence of Psychiatric Disorder in Students of Psychology and of Other Subjects

Abstract

There is a general impression amongst doctors that students and ex-students of Psychology suffer more from psychiatric disorders than do the rest of the population. This impression has not, however, been backed by any figures so far as I can discover. Davidson et al. (1955), for example, in their study of the detection of psychological vulnerability in students, make no special mention of Psychology students. Nor is there any special mention of Psychology students in the Proceedings of the First International Conference on Student Mental Health, edited by Funkenstein (1959). This present paper is an attempt to remedy the deficiency in part, and to encourage others to collect and publish further data.