Word Meaning in Parents of Schizophrenics

THIS INVESTIGATION is part of a program to designate as precisely as possible how parents of schizophrenics may differ from other parents. There is mounting evidence that these parents think and communicate in aberrant ways. Studies by McConaphy¹ and by Lidz et al² using the Object Sorting Test have demonstrated that parents of schizophrenics show impairment in conceptualizing. Other studies^3,4 using projective tests and the Object Sorting Test have drawn attention to disordered styles of thinking in these parents. In particular, disturbances in attention, peculiar verbalizations, and "blurring" of meaning were noted. The present investigation, consisting of two closely related studies, represents a further attempt to elucidate these disturbances in thinking and communicating.

Lidz and his associates⁵ have suggested, on the basis of intensive clinical studies of families of schizophrenics, that persons who are schizophrenic "were not raised in families that adhered to culturally accepted ideas