Researching the Family Theories of Schizophrenia: An Exercise in Epistemological Confusion

This paper reviews from an epistemological viewpoint the empirical literature that has attempted to assess the validity of the family theories of schizophrenia and particular attention is given to restating and extending the epistemology of pattern within which schizophrenia occurs.

Abstract

some, but not all, of the family theories of schizophrenia entail a shift from the Aristotelian/Cartesian/Newtonian epistemology of individual psychology to a systemic epistemology of pattern. Perhaps the most significant (and underappreciated) aspect of this epistemological shift pertains to etiology: The family theories of schizophrenia espoused by Bateson et al. and by Wynne and Singer do not claim that parents or families cause schizophrenia. The persistent failure of researchers to appreciate this has led to many fruitless studies that have sought to discover a causal link between the thought disorder and communication deviance of parents and the schizophrenia of their offspring. This paper reviews from an epistemological viewpoint the empirical literature that has attempted to assess the validity of the family theories of schizophrenia. Particular attention is given to restating and extending the epistemology of pattern within which schizophrenia occurs. The conventional psychiatric approaches to schizophrenia are shown to play an active role within the schizophrenic pattern.