Schizophrenia

Abstract

AbstractSchizophrenia was the first mental illness to become the subject of psychoeducational interventions on a widespread basis. It was first because the disorder is chronic, highly disabling, and caused by a yet-unknown nervous system pathology. It was once believed to be caused by pathological family systems. Early family theorists used such terms as emotional divorce (Bowen, 1960), communication deviance (Lynne, Cromwell, & Matthysse, 1978), the double-bind (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956), and family schisms and skewes (Lidz, 1975) to describe problematic parent-child interactions that supposedly caused a child to withdraw into psychosis. When the biological theories of schizophrenia became prominent in the 1970s, family advocacy groups organized to provide mutual education and support programs. They often had antagonistic feelings toward mental health providers, whom they viewed as stigmatizing (Vine, 1982). This chapter reviews the mental disorder of schizophrenia and a range of psychoeducational programs that have been shown to be helpful to the client’s and his or her family’s adjustment to the disorder.