[Psychogenic illness and social mobility between generations].

A representative epidemiological survey on psychogenic disorders confirms the often reported result, that these disorders are more common in lower socioeconomic classes. However, in looking for the socioeconomic origin of the subjects (parental class position), it could be shown that "cases" were equally distributed over social classes. Therefore, it seems to be unlikely that low social class as macrosocial factor in its own right has causative influence on the subjects' later mental health or illness. It seems more likely that microsocial aspects of primary and secondary socialization are of decisive importance. After the "breeding-hypothesis" as an explanation of the inverse relationship between social class and mental illness could be ruled out, the rival hypotheses of social stress and social selection (drift-hypothesis) are discussed. A research design which might test these alternatives is outlined.