The American Community in Bangkok, Thailand: A Model of Social Disintegration
GEORGE KOJAK JR. M.D.1
1 Chief, Group and Individual Treatment Section, Harborview Community Mental Health Center, 326 Ninth Ave., Seattle, Wash. 98104, and Instructor. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash.
The author suggests that the high prevalence of psychopathology (as measured by the number of marital problems and emotional problems of adolescents requiring professional care) noted in the American community in Bangkok, Thailand, during 1971-1972 was related to social disintegration. Comparison with a relatively integrated American community in Japan reveals a strikingly lower prevalence of psychopathology. The author notes that this observation substantiates the theory of Leighton and associates that the state of social integration of an environment affects the mental health of the population.
