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The Social Identity of the Chronic Schizophrenic

Division of Sociomedical Sciences Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health The University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas 77550

Jeffrey S. Levin, M.P.H.

Division of Sociomedical Sciences Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health The University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas 77550

Using ethnographic research methods in a sample of institutionalized male schizophrenics, an emic typology of patient social indentities was derived. Interview and observational data yielded three general status classes comprising thirteen associated identities: killer, fighter, assaultive person, fag, rapist, doper, drunk, victim, con, nut, weirdo, snitch, and disoriented. An individual's social identity varied depending upon his current setting within the hospital (official, private, patient-staff interaction, or outside). This emic-derived typology is con trasted with the etic typologies which dominate the literature (e.g. Goffman, Salisbury and Henry), and the importance of ethnographic study in social psychiatry is highlighted.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 32, No. 4, 48-57 (1986)
DOI: 10.1177/002076408603200406


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