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Studies of interactions in the families of schizophrenics have consistently employed a unidirectional model, emphasizing the effects of parents on children. Overreliance on unidirectional research designs and on linear models of causality has precluded the serious study of reciprocal effects in the families of schizophrenics.
Not infrequently, studies of the interaction between parents of schizophrenics reveal communication deviances. Such findings are commonly interpreted as support for an etiological theory that assigns major importance to the pathogenic influence of parents. The presence of parental deviance does not, however, constitute unequivocal support for an etiological interpretation because the possibility remains that such deviances represent a response to the child. The hypothesis that the disordered communications of schizophrenics contribute to a deterioration in thinking and communication in their parents is rarely tested.
Literature on parent-child effects is reviewed in two sections: the first section deals with the effects of parents on the child; the second, with the effects of the child on parents.
Clinical Interviews and Case Material. Many of the earliest studies focused on the mother of the schizophrenic with the aim of identifying pathogenic maternal characteristics. The first such effort was undertaken by Kasanin et al. (1934) who reviewed the records of 45 schizophrenics and found indications of maternal