Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Newspaper advice columns as a mental health resource

  • Articles
  • Published:
Community Mental Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recent research suggests that where people go for help with emotional problems is affected by how they conceptualize their problems. This paper reports the results of a study of letters sent to newspaper advice columns and indicates that people using this source of help blame others for their problems and do not see themselves as needing to change. Besides being seen as a place to get advice, newspaper columns are used to obtain specific and general psychological information or to express an opinion. The findings are compared to those concerning other community sources of help. It is suggested that advice columns may appeal to people who would not go elsewhere as well as those in the process of finding a more “professionally trained” practitioner.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addison, W. P., Chesteen, H. E., Jr., & Parker, J. B. Barriers to the use of outpatient mental health facilities.Mental Hygiene, 1968,52, 548–552.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gurin, G., Veroff, J., & Feld, S.Americans view their mental health. New York: Basic Books, 1960.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartoz, J. A. A classification of mental health non-professionals.Mental Hygiene, 1967,51, 517–524.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hollingshead, A. B., & Redlich, F. C.Social class and mental illness. New York: Wiley, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health.Action for mental health. New York: Basic Books, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadushin, C.Why people go to psychiatrists. New York: Atherton Press, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb, L. C., Bernard, V. W., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (Eds.)Urban challenges to psychiatry. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landers, A.Ann Landers says, truth is stranger... Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mechanic, D., Mental health and social policy. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mechanic, D., & Volkart, E. Stress illness and the sick role.American Sociological Review, 1961,26, 51–58.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newton Centre, 8 Devon Terrace, 02159, Massachusetts

    Susan Schmidt Dibner Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Susan Schmidt Dibner Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

This article was written while the author was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Duke University Center for Aging and Human Development.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dibner, S.S. Newspaper advice columns as a mental health resource. Community Ment Health J 10, 147–155 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01410893

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01410893

Keywords

Search

Navigation