Social Stress and Mental Health: A Social-Psychiatric Field Study of Calcutta

The immense stress that the people of Calcutta suffer as a result of overpopulation, migration, economic hardships, changing life styles and social structure is explored in this study. Depressive neuroses were found to be much more common - particularly among poor women - in Calcutta than in other Indian cities. However, the unique resilience of family systems was found to prevent Calcuttans having a `culture of poverty′.