Family Dysfunction

• The Schizophrenogenic mother was put forward by Fromm-Reichmann. According to Reichmann, the Schizophrenogenic mother is cold, rejecting and controlling, and tends to create a tense family environment. This leads to distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions, and ultimately schizophrenia
• The double-bind theory was put forward by Bateson et al and argued that the role communication style within a family was very important. The developing child regularly finds themselves trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing, but receives mixed messages about what this is. When they 'get it wrong', the child is punished by withdrawal of love. This leaves them confused and developing symptoms like paranoid delusions
• Expressed emotion refers to the level of emotion, particularly negative, expressed towards a person with schizophrenia by their carers who are often family members. EE can include: verbal criticism, hostility and emotional overinvolvement. These high levels of EE can be a serious source of stress and a primary explanation for relapse in people with SZ
• Lindz explored the idea of skewed families with a mentally ill parent and one who is uninvolved
• Lindz argued that if paranoid ideas become accepted within the family, it would lead to 'folie en famille' - family madness
• Relapse rate is doubled with families that have high EE- 21% for those returning to low EE families but 48% if the family have high EE (Kavanagh, 1992)
• AO3- Read (2005) found that adults with SZ are disproportionality likely to have an insecure attachment and also found a strong link between family history of abuse and SZ- so the family could play a big part in SZ development
• AO3- This explanation is very socially sensitive. For example, it results in parent-blaming and adds another layer of difficulty for families were someone has SZ
• AO3- This explanation may be outdated. For example, a schizophrenogenic mother or skewed families, which were once accepted, are now seen as destructive rather than productive.
• AO3- There is a lack of empirical evidence, and also, it is possible that someone with SZ might cause the family to behave in dysfunctional ways, not the other way round
• AO3- Berger found that people with SZ reported a higher recall of double-bind statements by their mother than people without SZ, lending support to the theory. However, the recall could be affected by SZ
• Retrospective evidence (looking back) complicates this theory as it questions the validity of how it reflects current times, and prospective evidence (looking forward) is rare.
• AO3- This explanation lacks usefulness- there may be a limited scope for change. For example, how difficult would it be to alter a problem to do with a family?
• AO3- Quite holistic- it researches the many and varied ways in which families may be dysfunctional