ABSTRACT
This chapter explores certain links between schizophrenic episodes, the marital family settings in which they occurred, and the institutionalized remedial processes which were brought to bear when personal and family adaptations failed. Clinical schizophrenia is often precipitated when a young person, prompted by inner and outer requirements, attempts to leave home and to function as an adult. This frequent pattern of precipitation has provided one significant point of departure for research about schizophrenia. Commonly, the schizophrenic patient and his family first come to psychiatric attention during what is experienced as an unmanageable emergency. Prior to this public phase of the crisis and often again after it, the disturbance of the patient is in some way managed in a community setting. Hospitalization legitimated the removal of the patient from her family, established new conditions of interaction between her and family members, and contributed to the definition of their roles as mental patient and responsible relative.
