Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:177-180
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
The interaction of social class and other factors in the etiology of schizophrenia
ML Kohn
Epidemiological evidence clearly indicates an especially high rate of
schizophrenia at the lowest social class levels of urban populations. The
author suggests that this relationship between class and schizophrenia
exists because the conditions of life experienced by people of lower social
class position foster conceptions of social reality that are so limited and
rigid as to impair their ability to deal resourcefully with the problematic
and the stressful. Such impairment does not in itself result in
schizophrenia; however, in conjunction with genetic vulnerability and great
stress, it could be disabling.
