Relationship between differential levels of parental “pathogenesis” and male children's diagnoses

Abstract

PROBLEMKaren's'') conceptualization of the "pathogenic" relationship between the male schizophrenic child and his mother appears to have received empirical support in several studies ( * * 3 , 4 , in which ('pathogenesis" was defined operationally, through the use of the TAT, as an interaction between two persons in which the dominant individual either ignores the expressed needs of the dependent individual or meets his own needs a t the expense of the dependent individual. I n each case, mothers of male schizophrenic children told a significantly greater proportion of "pathogenic" stories than matched controls.The purpose of this study was to extend the concept of "pathogenesis" t o male delinquency. METHOD'The Ss were five sets of parents of normal, delinquent, and schizophrenic boys. Both children and parents were matched on the basis of age, sex, education, and social class. The schizophrenic children were so diagnosed on the bases of interviews by two or more psychiatrists and psychological tests. The deiinquent children were referred by a court or legal agency for such specific behaviors as car theft and promiscuity. The normal children were nominated by classroom teachers.TAT stories were tape recorded, later typed on separate sheets of paper and presented randomly to the author, a clinical psychologist with approximately 5 years of experience, who blindly classified all stories that involved an interaction between two persons as (a) "pathogenic" or (b) "benign". "Pathogenic" stories were defined above. When the dominant person met or simply acknowledged the needs of the dependent person, the story was scored "benign" (B). Half of the randomized stories were similarly scored by a second judge, an advanced graduate studcnt in clinical psychology. A "pathogenic" score was tabulated for each S according to the formula: P/P + B, when P is the number of stories judged "pathogenic" and B the number of stories judged "benign". RESULTSInterscorer reliability for the two judges as measured by the Pearson productmoment correlation was .79. Table 1 indicates the mean "pathogenic" scores attributed by Judge I to the three groups of parents. T-tests for matched pairs indicated that both the mothers of the delinquent and normal boys told a significantly smaller proportion of "pathogenic" storics than did the mothers of the schizophrenic boys (t = 2.90, p . < .05; 1 = 2.60, p < .05, respectively). Table 1 shows that the mothers of the delinquent and normal boys told essentially the same praportion of "pathcgenic" stories.Further t-tests for matched pairs indicated that the three groups of fathers did not differ significantly from each other. However, Table 1 shows that the fathers of the delinquent and schizophrenic boys told almost the same proportion of "patho-*The author is grateful to Martha Werner, Section on Twin and Sibling Studies, Adult Psychiatry Branch, NIMH, and her colleagues for making the TAT stories available to him.

Rencontres avec des parents de schizophrènes

“…Souvent décrits comme perturbés et destructifs (Imura, Kwakubo, Mochizuki, Misu et Makihara, 1974;Mitchell, 1974), ces parents pourraient être ignorés ou même traités avec un certain dédain par certains professionnels de la santé mentale, sous prétexte qu'ils sont responsables des problèmes graves de leurs enfants. De plus, au niveau plus ou moins conscient, ces parents croient avoir échoué auprès de leurs enfants.…”

The clinical interpretation of the Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach, and other clinical data: A reexamination of statistical versus clinical prediction.

“…For specific purposes, as in research where one wishes to investigate only a single specified aspect of personality, or in clinical applications where one is interested in a single predetermined aspect of personality, that is not a problem. Then, one can develop specific, reliable, and accurate scoring paradigms that work empirically (e.g., Meyer & Karon, 1967; Mitchell, 1974; Wynne & Singer, 1963). However, in examining an individual where what is most relevant may not be known in advance, clinical thinking is essential.…”

Is there really a schizophrenogenic parent?

“…Mothers of schizo phrenics average pathogenesis scores of 75%; mothers of schizophrenics do not always ignore the conflicting needs of their children, but the more consistent problem makes children vulnerable. Singer and Wynne made available to Mitchell their TAT data from their National Institute of Mental Health study (Singer & Wynne, 1965b), and Mitchell found again that blindly scored TATs differentiated mothers of schizophrenics from mothers of normals (Mitchell, 1974).…”