Table Of ContentMENTAL HEALTH
AND SEGREGATION
A selection
of papers and
some book chapters
by
David P. Ausubel Charles S. Johnson Benjamin Pasamanick
Margaret Brenman Janet A. Kennedy Sheldon R. Roen
Kenneth B. Clark Hilda Knobloch A. B. Sclare
Mamie P. Clark Edna M. Lantz Morton Shane
Martin Deutsch Benjamin Malzberg S. R. Slavson
Martin M. Grossack Helen V. Mclean Harry Stack Sullivan
Martin D. Jenkins Paul H. Mussen David C. Wilson
M TA EA TH
AND SEGREGATION
Edited by
Martin M. Grossack
~ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
First printing, December, I963
Second printing, June, I966
Copyright © 1963
Springer Seienee+Business Media New York
Originally published by Springer Publishing Company, Ine. in 1966
ISBN 978-3-662-37110-7 ISBN 978-3-662-37819-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-37819-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21647
Type set at The Polyglot Press
Preface
The issues involved in the relationship of mental health and segre
gation are of importance to scholars and laymen alike. Many of these
issues have been studied in the past thirty years, and the bibliography
on the subject is larger than most people assume. By bringing together
representative investigations from many areas, this book will help
clarify problems and may serve as a point of departure for those
curious about the field, in particular, educators, social scientists, psy
chiatrists, and students. The range of periodicals from which the
papers are taken is so wide that few libraries would have all of them
available.
The field of mental health and segregation is covered in its major
dimensions: problems of Negro morale; studies of children, adoles
cents, and adults; approaches to Negro mental health; problems in
psychotherapy. Obviously, including all worthy topics is not possible.
An extensive bibliography is provided for those wishing to pursue the
various issues in more detail.
The articles give a picture of current thinking about the psychic
consequences of segregation. They include material that is experimen
tal, attitudinal, clinical, dynamic and statistical. Alternative points
of view are presented, especially in Section IV. The articles are un
abridged for the most part. Several case studies are presented.
When I was in Little Rock, from 1953-1955, my studies of group be
longingness, attitudes, and Negro personality began to show me the
extent to which segregation is also a mental health problem. This book
should help broaden the perspective of those concerned with the psy
chological issues involved in segregation.
I would like to acknowledge the help of David Crowell, Steve Pratt,
Lawrence Shubow, and Herbert Weaver for insights into psychology
they have given me. I would like to mention in particular Dr. M. L.
Harris, former President of Philander Smith College, and now Bishop
of the Methodist Church, for his encouragement of research during
my stay in Little Rock.
Suffolk University
Boston
August 1963
MARTIN M. GROSSACK, PH.D.
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction I
I SEGREGATION AND NEGRO MORALE
Attidudes Towards Desegregation of Southern White
and Negro Children
by Martin M. Grossack 7
2 Psychological Effects of Segregation on Buses
by Martin M. Grossack 14
3 Group Belongingness Among Negroes
by Martin M. Grossack 18
II NEGRO CHILDREN
4 Ego Development Among Segregated Negro Children
by David P. Ausubel 33
5 The Guidance Problems of Negro Youth
by Charles S. Johnson 41
6 Emotional Factors in Racial Identification and
Preference in Negro Children
by Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie P. Clark 53
7 Minority Group and Class Status as Related to Social
and Personality Factors in Scholastic Achievement
by Martin Deutsch 64
8 The Contribution of Some Organic Factors to School
Retardation in Negro Children
by Benjamin Pasamanick and Hilda Knobloch 76
III ADOLESCENCE AND ADULTHOOD
9 Urban Lower-Class Negro Girls
by Margaret Brenman 83
10 Personality and Negro-White Intelligence
by Sheldon R. Roen 109
11 The Upper Limit of Ability Among American Negroes
by Martin D. Jenkins II3
12 Difference Between the TAT Responses of Negro and
White Boys
by Paul H. Mussen 117
13 Some Personality Characteristics of Southern Negro
Students
by Martin M. Grossack 123
IV MENTAL HEALTH OF NEGROES
14 The Emotional Health of Negroes
by Helen V. McLean 131
15 Culture Change and Negro State Hospital Admissions
by David C. Wilson and Edna M. Lantz 139
16 A Survey of Mental Disease in an Urban Population
by Benjamin Pasamanick 150
17 Mental Disease Among Negroes
by Benjamin Malzberg 158
18 Cultural Determinants in the Neurotic Negro
by A. B. Sclare 161
19 Memorandum on a Psychiatric Reconnaissance
by Harry Stack Sullivan 175
V PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH NEGROES
20 Some Subcultural Considerations in the Psychotherapy
of a Negro Patient
by Morton Shane 183
21 Problems Posed in the Analysis of Negro Patients
by Janet A. Kennedy 199
22 Racial and Cultural Factors in Group Therapy
by S. R. Slavson 222
23 Psychology and Negro Life ... Some Needed Research
by Martin M. Grossack 227
References 231
Index 239
Introduction
SEGREGATION AND ITS MEANING
A particular term may help explain a number of phenomena. For
example, "competitiveness" helps explain sibling rivalry, aspects of
capitalism, grading systems in college, etc. Similarly the concept of
segregation helps us understand Negro poverty, family relations, school
difficulties, mental health, and social relations. Segregation may be
defined as the social system represented by group relations of domi
nance and submission, unequal distribution of wealth and means
of production, prohibitions on social advancement, and the designa
tion of inferior biological and social status through legal means and
the power of the community.
Segregation is a key concept that must be kept in mind when
evaluating the conditions of the Negro in America. It includes the
effects of the historical experiences of a formerly enslaved people, the
loss of African cultural identity, and the indoctrination of a slave
psychology.
Negroes were often separated from their loved ones, children from
their parents. Slave owners did not encourage family solidarity; some
utilized slaves as producers of more slaves, bred slaves as a marketable
commodity. After emancipation, prejudice against Negroes did not
subside. They remained in desperate economic straights. Their voca
tional opportunities were negligible due to illiteracy and the lack of
skills.*
Throughout American history, Negroes and whites have lived in
separate psychological worlds. The separate worlds have been called a
caste system, a relationship that has been legally defined in many ways.
But there was always a dominant group, the whites, and a dominated
one, the Negroes. Gradually, social classes developed within the Negro
group as a result of degree of whiteness in color, field slave or house
slave background, and economic aptitude. In comparing Negroes and
whites, many social scientists attempt to equate social class-an im
possible task since the same social position has a different meaning in
both groups.
Let us consider one example: Over 20 percent of Negroes have dis
rupted families, with only one parent present. An understanding of
the system of segregation and its historical consequences can help ex
plain this phenomenon. Negro families are often dominated by the
mother and/or maternal grandmother. The father is unable to meet
* For a detailed history of the Negro in America, The people that walk in dark
ness, by J. W. Schulte Nordholt !New York: Ballantine Books, 1960), should be
studied.
1
2 INTRODUCTION
the woman's image of a good husband and provider and often deserts
the group in an acting-out of his desperation. The mothers develop a
preference for female children. A much larger percentage of Negro girls
than boys complete secondary school and college in the South. Boys
have difficulty achieving an adequate sense of masculinity. The chil
dren are often unlikely to develop ambitions and needs for achieve
ment comparable to those found among white children. This is just
one example that shows the interplay of segregation on school problems
and family relations.
NEGRO MENTAL HEALTH
The articles that follow help the reader see problems of mental
health within the framework of the social conditions of Negro life
in America.* By mental health we mean the extent to which individ
uals can deal satisfactorily with the conditions of existence, their feel
ings of self-love and their ability to relate to others. Some ways in
which this can be measured are:
I. Statistics on the frequency of different types of mental illness
2. Data on emotional problems of learning and school retardation
3. Data on crime rates, delinquency, addiction, prostitution, and
divorce
4. Data on psychological variables-feelings about one's color, atti
tudes of self-hatred, desires to achieve, expressions of hostility, sexual
identification, interpersonal relations, etc.
The articles in this book provide data concerning the relation
ships between many of these aspects of mental health, on the one
hand, and the segregated social conditions of Negro life in the United
States, on the other.
I. SEGREGATION AND NEGRO MORALE
The articles in this section of the book suggest that segregation does
not have a healthy influence on most American Negroes. Segregation
imposes an additional stress and strain on Negroes that whites do not
face in their everyday life. Not every Negro is equally harmed by
segregation since there are individual differences in how people
experience social norms and how they learn about them. Each Negro
learns to adapt in his own way, but none can ever truly escape the
system.
* It is instructive to compare mental illness among Negroes in the United States
with African data. Honigmann reports that schizophrenia is forty-four times more
prevalent in the American Negro than in Kenya Africans. Similarly, organic psy
choses are much more prevalent among American Negroes. In Ghana. manic
depressive psychoses and depression are high in frequency according to Dr. S. K.
Weinberg, while these conditions are relatively infrequent among Negroes generally
and in other African nations. Men are much more likely to be patients in Africa
than in the United States (compared to the female rates).
