Group therapy conducted by two psychotherapists with the schizophrenic patient and his parents regularly revealed severe disturbances of communication among the family. This seems to have some bearing on the schizophrenic's thought disorder. Exchanges within these families have three characteristics, all

of which are repeated in the family's dealings with the therapists: the extravagance of manifest contradiction, the quietly savage destruction of meaning and intent, and the routine elimination of a broad spectrum of emotional experience. The therapists were frequently confronted with a folie à famille characterized by massive denial even though only one member of the family had overt symptoms. Some major countertransference problems in such a setting are discussed. Documentation is provided by several unusually instructive abstracts from group sessions.