Thought Disorder and Family Relations of Schizophrenics

A. Introduction In this paper we shall describe a strategy for research on schizophrenia in which the focus is upon links between family patterns and structural aspects of schizophrenic impairment, especially upon thought disorder. This orientation has now been successfully used in a series of systematic studies in which individual forms of thinkings have been specifically deduced ("predicted") from the forms of perceiving, relating, and communicating found in the family in which the individual has developed. Preliminary to publications on this research by our colleagues and us, we shall outline here the clinical and conceptual basis for this research strategy. Some of the limitations of past studies of the family relations of schizophrenics will be discussed. We shall suggest that more specific attention to the issue of structural ego impairment in schizophrenia can heighten the significance and fruitfulness of family studies. Next, we shall