View report page

Extent of problem
3. Mental ill-health constitutes about one-third of all ill-health in Britain today.
This is shown by the following figures:
(a) About 40 per cent. of all hospital beds are mental hospital beds.
(b) During the 1939-45 war, 40 per cent. of all medical discharges from the
Army were for psychiatric disorders.
(c) In an investigation carried out for the Medical Research Council, Russell
Fraser (1947) found that neurotic illness caused between a quarter and a third of all
absence from work, due to illness, in a random sample of 3,000 factory workers.
4. Not only is mental ill-health a substantial proportion of all illness, but it affects
in some degree about one person in every three of the population. This is shown by
the results of three surveys carried out in the late 1940s, one fairly large and the other
two very small.
(i) Russell Fraser in the investigation referred to above† found that 9 per cent.
of the men and 13 per cent. of the women had suffered from definite disabling
neurotic illness during the six months prior to the examination, and that a further
19 per cent. of men and 23 per cent. of women had suffered from minor degrees of
neurosis during the same period. The totals are 28 per cent. of men and 36 per cent.
of women.
(ii) In a recent paper Logan and Goldberg (1953)‡ report their study of the
physical, mental and social health of the 18-year-old males who registered for
National Service in a Borough of outer London in May, 1949. Of the total of
85 youths, 74 co-operated fully. Of these 74, 12 were found to be severely maladjusted*
and another 19 mildly disturbed. Expressed as percentages these represent
16 and 26 respectively—or a total of 42 per cent. (Even if all the 11 youths who
failed to co-operate are assumed to have been stable, the percentages remain as high
as 14 and 22—with a total of 36 per cent.)
(iii) Also in 1949 and in a Borough of outer London a survey (unpublished)
was made by a psychiatrist on the staff of the Tavistock Clinic of all the eight-yearold
boys in a primary school. Of a total of 40 boys, the parents of 33 co-operated
fully. Of these boys 14 were judged to be maladjusted*—or 42 per cent. (Again,
if it is assumed that the 7 who did not co-operate were all stable the percentage
remains as high as 35.)
5. Thus at three age levels—the working population as a whole, eighteen-year-olds
and eight-year-olds—the overall incidence of emotional disturbance is found to be in
the region of 30 per cent., with fairly severe disturbances in the region of 10-15 per cent.
These figures are far higher than is generally assumed.
6. Whereas the incidence of physical ill-health has dropped very strikingly in the
last 100 years and continues to do so, there is no reason to suppose that there has been
any reduction in the incidence of mental ill-health. Unfortunately, there are no figures
available by which these trends can be judged.
Some origins of psychological disturbances
7. The old maxim that the influences present during the first seven years of a child's
life remain with him for the rest of his existence has been confirmed during the last
50 years by evidence derived from the psychological treatment of adults and children
†FRASER, Russell {1947)
The Incidence of Neurosis among Factory Workers.
M.R.C. Industrial Health Board Report No. 90, H.M.S.O.
‡LOGAN, R. S. L. and GOLDBERG, E. M. (1953)
Rising Eighteen in a London Suburb.
(Brit. J. Socio1. 1953, 4. pp. 323-345.)
(*In this context the term 'maladjusted' indicates that a child or youth is either unable to make satisfactory and
satisfying relationships with others or suffers from neurotic symptoms or both.)
157