Social class and social mobility in relationship to psychiatric symptomology in Argentina

Abstract

Symptoms, symptom dominance patterns, and precipitating circumstances were investigated in groups of male and female Argentine psychiatric patients divided on the basis of father’s socioeconomic level, own socioeconomic level, and social mobility. Upon comparison of the results obtained with those of a closely related North American study, the conclusion was reached that virtually no findings were identical in the two investigations. There were, however, similarities in theme and character of the relationships between symptom and social class variables in the two countries. Overt, impulsive, and bizarre symptomatology predominated among lower class patients, intermediate levels of socioeconomic status tended toward self-blame and guilt, and the highest groups included in this study expressed anxiety, tension, and alienation. The interculturally consistent and the specifically Argentine components of these findings were discussed in relation to the available reports on the ways of life of nor­mal Argentines at several levels of the socioeconomic hierarchy.