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An intensive study of the families of young upper-class schizophrenic patients was initiated by Theodore Lidz in 1952. This partial report is derived from information gathered by a team of psychiatrists, social worker, psychologist, and research assistant. Material was compared with reports of other groups making related or somewhat similar studies. There was corroboration of some material relative to parents' personalities, previously reported by other researchers. Of particular significance is a description of certain patterns of intrafamilial disturbance characterized and described under the following categories. 1. Failure to form a nuclear family, one or both parents remaining primarily attached to one of his or her parents or siblings. 2. Family schisms due to parental strife. 3. Family skews, one dyadic relationship dominating at the expense and needs of other members. 4. Blurring of generation lines in the family. 5. Pervasion of the entire family atmosphere with irrational, usually paranoid, ideation. 6. Persistent conscious incestuous preoccupation and behavior within the family. 7. Sociocultural isolation of the family as a result of the six preceding conditions. 8. Failure to