Urban area's and their psychiatric patients (explanations of the typical urban residence-pattern of patients in psychiatrie hospitals) — In this article we study the explanations, which have been given by many authors of the typical urban residence-pattern of patients in psychiatrie hospitals. The authors think of various kinds of explanations such as: biological, sociopsychological and sociological. After a brief description of the biological and socio-psychological explanations attention is focused on the sociological ones. They are divided into three groups under the headings:
1. social desorganisation and anomy;
2. drift;
3. social selection.
We review the literature on these topics extensively.
We must conclude, that none of the explanations gives a final answer to the typical residence-pattern of patients in psychiatrie hospitals. They however link the study of this phenomenon with a sociological analysis of the society in which the patient lives. Key-concepts in this analysis are: social control, social desorganisation, deviant behaviour, labeling process, social/and or/political action.