MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION AND MORAL VALUES OF LOWER CLASS PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC PATIENTS

A study of lower class psychiatric clinic patients found that their knowledge of mental illness and psychiatry, measured by scores on several mental health questionnaires, was significantly higher than the clinic's professional personnel expected it to be. The moral values professed by the patients were more authoritarian and repressed than those of the experts. There were no significant relationships found between mental health knowledge or moral values congruent with those of the experts and psychiatric impression rating, diagnosis, or disposition. Several possible explanations for these findings are suggested and their implications are discussed. © 1969, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.