ABSTRACT
The literature on the family and Schizophrenia tends to concentrate on parents of people with Schizophrenia but having a Schizophrenia sufferer in the family can have an impact on siblings. H. Katschnig and T. Konieczna looked at the different perspectives of self help groups for patient’s families and professionals working from within the family therapy tradition. They saw self help groups for families as being at the opposite end of a power gradient to traditional family therapy. The family itself may be split as to the extent of the problem, indeed, mental health care professionals may themselves tend to minimise the problem or may concentrate on the family, confused and anxious, as the seat of the problem. There is an increasing body of research on the impact of mental illness, and in particular Schizophrenia, on the family and also the real, as opposed to professionally assumed, needs of the family members.
