Variablen im sozialisationsprozess des schizophrenen: Zum stand der empirischen forschung

Abstract

Results of research in schizophrenia under a sociological perspective were presented in relation to Parsons' model of the socialization process to point up systematically intrafamilial conditions possibly confirming the communicational double-bind hypothesis of Bateson, Jackson, Haley and Weakland on the etiology of schizophrenia. In spite of some general methodological objections to the empirical research about the family environment of pre-schizophrenics, the results support the assumption that the socialization process of the schizophrenic shows conditions favoring an anomic development. Of much importance seems to be the perseveration of dependencies between a parental figure— mostly the mother—and the pre-schizophrenic child. The child, therefore, fails to internalize a relational pattern including female and male as well as age-related dispositions of behaviour and thus enabling him to find a sexual and generational identity; in this way the differentiation according to intra- and extrafamilial orientation of acting becomes impossible. On the ground of the described family constellations interaction modes are developing that are moulded by the necessity to preserve the endangered family system. Therefore, modes of communication impeding reflection on the intrafamilial conflict situations are chosen, as pointed up in the double-bind hypothesis. The impossibility of dealing with social situations in a metacommunicational way seems to undermine the development of ego-identity and the learning of intersubjectively understandable symbols. Consequently, those pathological distortions will arise which can be understood as a retreat from the participation in social interactions and as the stabilization of an isolated autistic equilibrium in the individual.