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The Patient's Primary Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Scott Henderson ,
Paul Duncan-Jones ,
Helen McAuley  and
Karen Ritchie
Scott Henderson
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Paul Duncan-Jones
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Helen McAuley
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Karen Ritchie
Affiliation:
National Health and Medical Research Council, Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
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Abstract

The size and utilization of the primary group (those with whom one has interaction and commitment) was examined in 50 patients with non-psychotic psychiatric disorder and 50 matched controls. The hypotheses tested were that the patients would have a smaller size of primary group, less contact with its members and an inferior affective quality of interaction with it; and that this deficiency would be most marked in transactions with the principal attachment figure. Patients were found to spend the same amount of time as normals with their primary group, but proportionately more of that time was affectively unpleasant. They had fewer good friends and fewer contacts with persons outside the household. They had fewer attachment figures, almost one half of them reporting that either they had only one, or that they had had no recent contact with those alternatives that did exist. The majority of patients considered that their principal attachment figures gave them insufficient support. The complexity of interpreting these data is discussed.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 132 , Issue 1 , January 1978 , pp. 74 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

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