A CONTRIBUTION TO THE MENTAL PATHOLOGY OF RACES IN THE UNITED STATES

To those who believe with Kraepelin that the disposition of a people finds expression in its mental diseases, it would seem that investigations of the mental pathology of peoples and races might lead to some information as to the general characteristics of the peoples concerned. The character and degree of intelligence, emotional stability, morale, tendencies to criminalism and to inebriety, might be revealed by these measures. Such information might well be more definite than indicated by the actual number of cases found, as for each case pronounced enough to be called a disease there would be many borderline ones of the same category showing the same general trends. An excessive distribution in any community of any particular type of disease might well indicate the general mental level and trend of that community. Obvious difficulties stand in the way of investigations of this kind. Intensive surveys are necessarily restricted to small