This article examines the book Social class and mental illness: a community study by A.B. Hollingshead and F.C. Redlich as it marks the fifty year of its publication. It highlights the role of these researchers who, with distinct educational backgrounds (sociology and psychiatry), were part of the pioneering group in the 1950s that initiated the construction of medical sociology. Their careful methodological work and the fact that they approached an unprecedented topic ensured the originality of their project. The article analyzes the research and its importance for sociology and psychiatry, with emphasis on the studies regarding social classes, using the bibliographies as the main sources, critical analyses made of the work and related studies.
August de Belmont Hollingshead (1907-1980); Frederick Carl Redlich (1910-2004); social class and mental illness; social psychiatry; medical sociology