[Theory of Argentine cultural "isoidia"]

For the epidemiological study of mental pathology in the Argentine Republic the country has been systematically divided into 25 Cultural Areas, to which it is necessary to add the "megalopolis" of Buenos Aires City and conurbation. Each one of these Cultural Areas is analysed according to the anthropological method, which enables us to comprise an innumerable series of epidemiological variants. We investigate, for example, in every one of them the situation of the mentally sick within the community and the cultural attitude of the latter towards mental illness. For statistical purposes of Psychiatrical Epidemiology an experimental study of the prevalence of this type of disease is carried out in each of the above mentioned areas. As a complement to this investigation an analysis of the Institutional Prevalence of Mental Pathology has been performed, i.e., of the patients attended at the State Establishments, be they national, provincial or municipal.