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April 12, 2001. Is the cause of schizophrenia primarily biological, with little or no contribution from psychosocial factors, as Martin Willick ( J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn. 49/1) suggests? Although there is clearly a biological contribution to the etiology of schizophrenia, there is growing evidence that psychosocial factors—particularly childhood physical and sexual abuse—play an extremely important role in its etiology (for a review of the literature, see Read 1997). Traumatic experiences like these might not be a contributing factor in all people diagnosed with schizophrenia, but approximately 60 percent of schizophrenic patients report having experienced some form of childhood abuse (Read 1997). Further, neurological data strongly suggest that traumatic experiences like these have an untoward impact on the developing brain, which, it has been hypothesized, might create the vulnerability to developing schizophrenia (Read 2001).
It should be clear by now that child abuse does not necessarily implicate families as its perpetrators. Families are not the only possible source of such abuse: childhood traumas can occur under a variety of circumstances with many different people. A child born to a warm,