A sociological theory of the diffusion and social setting of opiate addiction.

The theory presented here is intended to apply to socially deprived areas where heroin addiction is endemic, narcotics are available, and adolescents are not naive about the consequences of heroin use. In such settings rapid epidemic changes occur in which within a short period of time large numbers are involved. The transition of heroin use is a conversion-type phemonenon which is facilitated by the basic belief system, the network of social circles and the social and psychological inducements for compliance.

Society, culture, and mental disorder.

The central objective in this article is to effect a critical examination of these theories and hypotheses that purport to explain the process by which selected sociocultural factors make their ingression into the personality and emerge as mental symptoms and/or mental disorders. The difficulties of isolating these specific factors stem from two unresolved methodological concerns. One is the uncertainty as to whether functional mental illness can be differentiated into several qualitatively distinct syndromes or whether it forms a unity of a more generic character.