Family structures and their significance for schizophrenia
- Family system as a central factor: The sources emphasize that schizophrenia is not just an individual illness, but reflects profound systemic problems within the family.
- Emotional overfocus: Certain family constellations can cause emotional attention to be strongly focused on a child.
- This can be due to talents, gender or early illnesses.
- Children who are the emotional focus can remain trapped in their role and have difficulty detaching.
- Sibling positions: A child’s position in the sibling series can lead to certain role distributions.
- Older children often take on structural responsibility.
- Middle children often act as mediators.
- Youngest children are often responsible for emotional concerns.
- Only children occupy a special position.
- Traumatic circumstances: Children born during difficult times may assume the role of “comforter child”.
Interaction patterns in the family
- Circular communication: Emotional communication patterns are circular rather than linear and can be passed down through generations.
- Stressful communication styles: Families with schizophrenia often exhibit stressful communication patterns.
- High emotional expressivity: This includes impatience, a raised voice, and rapid speech.
- Associative communication: Leaps of thought and unclear statements are typical.
- Indirect and mystifying communication: Conflicts are avoided or described in a roundabout way.
- Double-bind communication: Contradictory messages are sent at different levels simultaneously.
- Conflict avoidance: Families with schizophrenia tend to avoid conflict, often by denying individual perception.
- Chronic relationship conflicts: Constant conflicts and rivalry between parents create a tense atmosphere.
- Divided loyalty: Children can experience a conflict of loyalty when they are caught between their parents.
Parenting styles and roles in the family
- Inconsistent parenting: Inconsistent parenting styles between fathers and mothers are a risk factor.
- Mothers often criticize the lack of involvement of fathers, while fathers ridicule overly involved mothers.
- Over-committed mothers and passive fathers reinforce destructive patterns.
- Mothers are more likely to assert themselves, leading to matriarchal leadership.
- Parenting styles:
- Parenting through punishment (authoritarian).
- Parenting through cooperation.
- Overprotective mothers: They are often emotionally overinvolved, which leads to control and manipulation strategies.
- Parents as role models: Parents should be a support for their teenagers, not themselves in search of love and understanding.
Further aspects of family structure
- Implicit expectations: Parents‘ unexpressed wishes and dreams can become implicit tasks for the next generation.
- Problems of detachment: Difficulties in detaching from parents, which are passed down through generations, can be a risk factor.
- Unresolved conflicts: Unresolved conflicts from the parents‘ families of origin have a negative effect on the current family situation.
- Projection screen: The family member with schizophrenia often serves as a scapegoat for dysfunction within the system.
Ursula Davatz’s hypothesis
- AD(H)D as a vulnerability factor: Davatz sees the genetic predisposition to AD(H)D as an increased sensitivity and vulnerability that allows those affected to absorb the stress of the family system.
- Family environment: The family environment is more important than genetic factors.
- Gene-environment interaction: The interaction of genes and environment influences the development of schizophrenia.
In summary, family structure is not just a background, but an active factor in the development of schizophrenia. The interactions, role distributions, and emotional patterns within the family have a profound influence on the development of family members, especially those with a genetic predisposition to AD(H)D. It is therefore not just about individual factors, but about a complex interplay within the family system.
https://books.apple.com/us/book/ad-h-d-and-schizophrenia/id1451739789