Social Class and the Schizophrenogenic Mother Concept

Abstract

S~~mnzary.-The T A T was administered to 26 mothers of schizophrenic children and 26 mothers of normal children. Both mothers and children were matched on a number of variables. Ss within each group were categorized as upper, middle or working class. Each story was judged pathogenic, benign, or unscorable by rwo clinicians. A parhogentc score was tabulated for each S from the formula: pathogenic/pathogenic plus benign. The main effect of children's diagnosis and the interaction of diagnosis and social class significantly influenced the type of story. Karon ( 1963 ) has conceprualized the schizophrenogenic mother as one who, when the needs of mother and child conflict, will indirectly satisfy her needs by manipulating her child in such a way that his behavior satisfies her needs. According to Karon, the aim of the mother's covert manipulation is chat the child accept ~~ncr~trcally her view of reality rather than trust his own experience. The covert nanire of the mother's demands and her ambivalence lead to her child's inability to distinguish her motives from his and to his seriously impaired ego functioning.Two recent studies (Meyer & Karon, 1967;Mitchell, 1968) used the TAT to assess the concept of the schizophrenogenic mother offered by Karon. They found that the TAT stories told by mothers of schizophrenic and mothers of normal children differed markedly. Mothers of schizophrenic children produced significantly more TAT stories than mothers of normal children in which the dominant individual either ignored expressed needs of the dependent individual or took from the dependent individual when their needs conflicted. The authors in both studies termed these stories "pathogenic," and concluded char, regardless of the direction of causation, the concept of the schizophrenogenic mother is valid.Other studies indicate that identifiable themes in TAT stories appear to be relared to social class. McArthur ( 1955) found that middle-class Ss at Harvard University told TAT stories which reflected greater autonomy needs and more ambition and work involvement than upper-class Ss. On the other hand, upperclass Ss were more oriented toward the past and family values. In a study of mid-