Ego Differentiation and Schizophrenic Symptom Formation in Identical Twins

FOR THE PAST seven years we have been studying intensively the intrafamilial environment in which sixteen schizophrenic patients had been raised. The methodology and a number of findings of the study have been reported elsewhere (4), (5), (14), (15), (16), (17), (18). Among the patients was an identical twin whose co-twin became extremely disturbed immediately after the patient was hospitalized. The patient was treated in the Yale Psychiatric Institute and continued in analytically oriented psychotherapy after discharge, while his twin managed to remain at home receiving analytically oriented treatment from a therapist who kept detailed process notes of each session.1 The parents and an older brother were interviewed repeatedly, and the interaction among family members was observed closely. All five members of the family were given a battery of projective tests. The study of these twins, together with all of the other members of the family, and the intrafamilial environment they created, permitted a unique opportunity to examine the special problems of ego development confronting twins and the impact of the family dynamics in shaping the personalities and the pathology of these twins in particular. We believe that if we wish