title: The Midtown Manhattan Longitudinal Study vs 'the Mental Paradise Lost' doctrine. A controversy joined.
abstract: The "Mental Paradise Lost" school in psychiatry propounds a historical trend of deteriorating mental health in the general population, particularly among women, and especially in big cities. The socio-epidemiological Midtown Manhattan Longitudinal Study, covering four decade-of-birth cohorts born since 1895, has yielded data that challenge those claims. To explain serendipitous findings of intergeneration differences between Midtown men and women on measures of subjective well-being, a theory is advanced based on changes in the status and roles of women since the late Victorian era. Possible policy implications for preventive psychiatry are discussed, and further follow-up research outlined for the specialty field of socio-psychiatric history.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000639:trends