Psychodynamic Explanation for Schizophrenia
- Created by: GracieFM
- Created on: 20-03-14 10:51
View mindmap
- Psychodynamic Explanation for Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenogenic Mother
- Children are at high risk of developing schizophrenia if...
- Mother is overprotective towards them
- They are in a family characterised as having high emotional tension
- They are in a family characterised as being secretive
- Where the mother is cold and domineering in her attitude
- Mother rejects attempts by the child to respond to the demands
- Mixed messages from the mother cause the child to become confused
- The confusion and inability to understand how to behave in certain situations stems from these early experiences
- Mothers are characterised as schizophrenogenic
- All children go through stages of development where they are dominated by feelings of persecution and omnipotence
- A poor relation between the child and primary care giver in infancy can prevent the child from outgoing these belifes
- Therefore they are vulnerable to schizophrenia in later life as they respond to stress with these feelings
- Children are at high risk of developing schizophrenia if...
- Evaluation of Schizophrenogenic Mother
- The credibility of this explanation has been dented by the strong evidence of a biological element fround by using adoption studies
- It is likely if parenting has a role to play that fathers are equally likely to be an influence on the development of the disorder
- It's more likely that a child who is showing difficult behaviour tha will lead to schizophrenia is the cause of parental behaviour rather than the other way round.
- Beels (1974)
- Parents of schizophrenic children showed better reasoning skills when interviewed without their children present
- Now widely discredited theory but has caused much damage to families and is still occasionally prepetuated today
- Evidence
- Litz et al (1965)
- Found that 45/50 p'pants had a disturbed family
- 60% had one or both parents with serious personality disorders
- Parental marriages characterised as as either constant discord or one dominant and one submissive
- Fathers were typically passive
- Mothers were typically cold and dominant
- Read
- Early family relations are important for explaining schizo
- Negative - only says that early experiences impact on mental health, so doesn't support Bion or Fromm-Richman
- Alanen's Integrated Psychodynamic Theory
- Based in large scale of families with schizo and clinical case studies
- 5 points to theory of how environment could lead to schizo:
- 1. Whole family important not just primary care giver - whole family relationship important
- 2. Parents personality and relationship with child important to if vulnerable to schizo
- 3. A family where one person is more dominant then children more likely to develop schizo
- 4. Families who encourage dependance are more likely to develop schizo
- 5. Genes determine tempermant of children - if parents are angry child is most likely to be angry. Child has to be genetically vulnerable
- Genetically vulnerable + bad family relationship = schizophrenia
- Tienai (1992)
- Followed 200 Finnish children who were adopted at birth or shortly after
- Their mothers were schizophrenic
- 10% of children developed schizophrenia
- Children with schizo were from dysfuntional families
- Wahlberg (1997)
- Compared 56 adoptees from mothers with schizo to control group of 96 children from parents without mental health problems
- Neither a schizo mother nor an abusive family resulted in schizo
- If a child had bother then they were more liklely to have schizo
- Litz et al (1965)
- Schizophrenogenic Mother
Comments
No comments have yet been made