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Parental abnormalities of verbal communication in the transmission of schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Steven R. Hirsch  and
Julian P. Leff
Steven R. Hirsch
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London
Julian P. Leff
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
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Synopsis

A carefully controlled comparison of communication defects and deviances in parents of schizophrenics and neurotics was undertaken using the 41-category Rorschach manual of Singer and Wynne. Subjects were tested and scored blindly and scoring was shown to be reliable. Although a statistically significant difference was found between the two groups, the marked overlap of the distribution of scores found in this study is not compatible with theories advanced by other authors concerning communication abnormality in parents of schizophrenics. Evidence is presented which provides a more parsimonious explanation of the difference between groups and leads to a hypothesis which would explain the failure of this study to confirm the striking differences between groups reported by previous workers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , February 1971 , pp. 118 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

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