Memorandum on social insurance and allied services in their bearing on neurotic disorder
1943 1943 1940s 19 pages 3 is that the psychological reaction develops through various stages as the period of unemployment lengthens. After the active period of job-hunting which follows immediately on the initial "shock" a second phase of pessimistic, anxious, active distress sup...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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[1943?]
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/917A9568-5CAD-4181-8332-CE3376D09FA9 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/23FFF732-5709-4BBD-B6CC-E9C64685A3BC |
| Summary: | 1943
1943
1940s
19 pages
3 is that the psychological reaction develops through various stages as the period of unemployment lengthens. After the active period of job-hunting which follows immediately on the initial "shock" a second phase of pessimistic, anxious, active distress supervenes ; this is the most critical stage, during which the individual is still "reclaimable" — the one which a satisfactory remedial scheme should anticipate, and certainly never allow to pass. This is followed by a final "broken" stage when the one-time worker becomes apathetic and fatalistic, sometimes also resentful, and adapts himself within a narrower field. No time limits can be given for these phases ; they vary according to the individual concerned and the circumstances. Halliday (1935) noted that among the unemployed section of his insured population at first the incidence of neurosis rose with the duration of unemployment ; initially 30 per cent., it reached a peak (41 per cent.) between six months and two years, but thereafter fell again to 33 per cent. Conclusions. (a) An efficient mechanism to re-establish the unemployed in industry as soon as possible would be the most important factor in alleviating the psychological distress and illness due to "want." (b) The duration of unemployment which may be "allowed" or "condoned" by the scheme on the grounds of inevitability should be less than the period after which active job hunting leads to a phase of active psychological stress, and should never be long enough for the final apathetic "broken" stage to develop ; studies should be undertaken at a suitable time to determine the usual durations of these periods in England. (2) The Unemployables or the "Hard Core of Unemployment." It is hardly surprising that when a depression brings unemployment in its wake it affects particularly the less able section of the population — less able in intelligence, acquired and other work-skill, adjustability and persistence. Though certain industries tend to be particularly affected, by a series of displacements the casual worker, the older worker, and the juveniles entering employment are particularly hit (Minnesota studies). Thus the unemployed tend to be those less effective socially or psychologically and those more liable to psychiatric disability. This concentration of disabilities in the unemployed will be more obvious when unemployment is not widespread. If it is an economic problem to organize industry so that unemployment will be at a minimum, it will often be a psychiatric, as well as a social problem to deal with the unemployed individuals — particularly if there is no mass unemployment. There will be some unemployed because of physical permanent disability, but the Beveridge proposals ensure that these will receive medical attention. There is some evidence on the extent to which the chronic unemployed who were P.A.C. problems, and the apparently unemployable, were psychiatric cases (Slater, in Blacker, 1937 ; A. Lewis, 1937 ; L.C.C. Study), and on their amenability to treatment (A. Lewis, 1935).
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |