Peter Kelvin and Joanna Jarrett examine the effects of unemployment identified by research conducted since the 1930s and consider the implications of these effects on both personal relationships and the public treatment of the unemployed. The book brings together a wide variety of material - mainly psychological, but also economic, sociological and, in particular, historical. This diverse material is integrated in terms of a small number of fundamental psychological concepts and five basic and related questions: how does unemployment affect the way in which the unemployed individual sees himself; how does it affect the way he sees others; how does he think others see him; how do others actually see him; and how does any of this affect how the individual behaves and how she/he is treated?