Medicine: Schizophrenics International

Although Pioneer Eugen Bleuler concluded half a century ago that schizophrenia is a worldwide disease, some psychiatrists continue to doubt it. Others contend that it is an essentially different disease among primitive peoples, especially African blacks. In Zurich last week (predominantly white) psychiatrists* got the benefit of research by psychiatrists of the black and yellow races. Their evidence suggested that 1) schizophrenia is most frequent where the tensions of Western technical civilization have caught up with primitive peoples; 2) when primitive people do suffer from schizophrenia, it-is essentially the same disease as in the West, though often colored by local superstitions,...

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