Influence of Small Social Networks as Factors on Mental Hospital Admission

The phenomena referred to by the phrase illness may be studied at several different levels—biochemical, psychological, sociocultural. At the cultural level, an individual is mentally ill when his behavior ceases to have the kind of predictability which is necessary for incorporation into the structure of social units in which he holds positions. All social interaction rests to some degree on classification of the participants in terms of their position in a social structure. For a given social structure there will be appropriate ways of behaving toward persons occupying given categories, such as brother, employee, pedestrian, etc., and there will be ways of interpreting their behavior in terms of these categories. It is characteristic of mental illness, however, that the individual's behavior ceases to be within the range of the usual expectancies, or in fact, within the range of the defining properties of the positions he holds. Although social relationships are modified by the particula...