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This is the report of a highly original research carried out at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, as part of the Group Psychotherapy Project sponsored by the Veterans Administration. The authors conducted over a period of two years a group of eight, made up of four pairs of mothers and daughters. The daughters were young or adolescent women, chronically ill with schizophrenia, and in-patients of the hospital. They met, as a group, once a week for one hour, with their visiting mothers and the doctor and a research psychiatric social worker. The events of each session were thoroughly discussed by the psychiatrist and the P.S.W. and were recorded at the time. The technique used in utilizing the deep emotional involvement of therapist and observer is bold and exemplary.
The most important result is the emotional significance of the parents, especially the mother's dependence on the child for the genesis of the illness. Two fathers died from heart attacks during the period concerned.
The authors devote their first chapter to their approach to the investigation. Chapter II describes the mother-daughter pairs, and Chapter III, the longest chapter in the book, presents the development of the group through its various phases. There follows an analytical summary of the group's development and the mother-daughter relationship, and finally the authors give their conclusions.
This is a piece of work of the utmost interest for the problems of schizophrenic illness and at the same time a beautiful illustration of the value of group-analytic observation. The presentation is quite excellent.