Decision-Making in Normal and Pathologic Families

In the last few years there has been increasing evidence for the view that many psychiatric syndromes not only originate in the close relationships of the family group but actually represent, in themselves, particular aspects of transactions more or less characteristic of pathologic family processes.¹,³,⁴In this regard the clinical observations of families in conjoint therapy have provided us already with a wealth of corroborative material and the necessary justification to strike out, with pioneering methods and tools, towards fresh conceptualizations and systematic research. The research project to be reported in this paper grew out of the current interest in the family process and borrowed some inspiration from ideas pertaining to the theory of games and group decision making.²,⁶The project was designed to investigate a particular aspect of the interaction among family members as they were directed to make decisions that would affect the whole family group. It was assumed