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Parental Deprivation in Depressive Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Alistair Munro
Alistair Munro*
Affiliation:
University of Leeds; formerly Member of the Scientific Staff, Medical Research Council Unit for Research on the Epidemiology of Psychiatric Illness, University of Edinburgh
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Extract

Since in most cultures it is normal practice for children to be reared by their parents, there is a general consensus of opinion that it is undesirable to be deprived of one's parents in childhood. This can scarcely be disputed, but to assert, as many authorities do, that a variety of severe psychological abnormalities may arise in the child as a result of such deprivation is to make an assumption of some magnitude. It requires an even greater assumption to postulate a causal connection between a long-past occurrence like childhood bereavement and a psychiatric illness which develops in adult life. It will be contended here that, with some exceptions, the evidence for such a connection is meagre. In particular, it will be shown that there is no apparent justification for regarding parental deprivation as an aetiological factor in depressive illness.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 112 , Issue 486 , May 1966 , pp. 443 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1966 

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