Positive Psychology and Schizophrenia

Many people are probably not aware that much of the work on family therapy actually began with research on schizophrenia. According to Nichols et al., researchers felt that the "strange patterns of interaction [in families in which psychosis was present] were so dramatic," if they could understand such an extreme condition, it would likely shed light on so many other less extreme mental health conditions as well. (Nichols, et al., 2007) Ultimately, doing this work, researchers were able to identify patterns in families that were not healthy. Such patterns include extreme conflicting messages such as the "double bind," rigid family roles, faulty parental models of identification, and the "rubber fence." The rubber fence, identified by Wynne, is parental rigidity that limits outside contact for the children. It is particularly ironic because it often occurs in the lives of many children who need outside contact the most, who live in such a toxic family culture.

The study of schizophrenia and family culture has certainly provided significant measure of understanding of disease, of why people get sick. That is one part of the equation. However, the other side of it, e.g., the dangers and consequences of focusing only on disease etiology, is that using this perspective we also tend to blame, label, and diagnose. Doing so, we tend to lose focus of the most important aspects of recovery, such as strengths, positive qualities and beneficial characteristics of both the individuals involved and whole families.(Seligman, et al., 2006)

References

Nichols, M.P.; Shwartz, R.C. (2007). Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods (8th edition). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Seligman, M.; Rashid, T.; Parks, A.C. (November 2006) American Psychologist. pp.774-778.