You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The parents of forty in-patient and forty out-patient schizophrenic children were studied with regard to their personality structure and the possible influence of this on the therapy of the children. Important basic similarities were found in the two groups of parents. The parents manifested pathology at two levels: core disturbance and superstructure. The core disturbance was the parents' fear that experiencing intense affect would mobilize overwhelming anxiety which would lead to their own total destruction. Against the external, anxiety-inducing stimuli, as well as against the anxiety itself, these parents developed defenses which denied reality. While this disturbance was reflected in overt psychosis in some, the majority manifested personality organizations of three other types. The pseudodelinquent attempted to externalize anxiety through antisocial behavior; the pseudoneurotic utilized neuroticlike defenses to maintain a stereotyped life situation; and the somatic showed hypochondriacal and somatization reactions. The first two groups predominated in the in-patient setting and the latter in the outpatient. The therapeutic approach varies depending upon the personality organization of the parents and suggestions are offered regarding the therapy of each of the groups.