Loneliness and Dissatisfaction in a Blue Collar Population

Psychiatrists, sensitized by recent publications describing "blue collar blues" among assembly-line industrial workers, may attribute their complaints of emotional distress to the stress of assembly-line environment. A field survey of automobile workers engaged in production-line tasks reveals no more evidence of unrelatedness, loneliness, boredom, life-dissatisfaction, work dissatisfaction, or depression than among their spouses. Where these phenomena occur, they are usually part of a broader pattern of emotional illness characteristic of diagnosed patients drawn from the same population. Mental health professionals should be cautious about stereotypes lest they impair their clinical judgment.