1965/02/01 by Margaret Thaler Singer · 232 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Mental Health and Psychiatry #Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics #Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications #Id, ego and super-ego #Psychology #Thought disorder #Schizophrenia (object-oriented programming) #Ego psychology #Developmental psychology #Cognitive psychology #Social psychology #Cognition #Psychiatry
paper · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1965.01720320089010
published in Archives of General Psychiatry 12(2), 201 (American Medical Association)
openalex publication_date 1965/02/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A. Introduction IN COMPANION papers on the Family Studies research at the National Institute of Mental Health, we have indicated that our research has been focused upon links between individual schizophrenic impairment and family patterns of thinking and communicating.<sup>1-5</sup> In the study of individual offspring we have been especially concerned with the structural or formal aspects of ego disorganization, particularly thought disorder. We have conceptualized schizophrenic thinking along a continuum based upon broad developmental principles in which relatively "amorphous" forms of thinking can be distinguished from better differentiated but still "fragmented" forms of thinking.<sup>3</sup>In the present study we have also used a dimension of severity of ego disorganization as well as traditional diagnostic distinctions. In the study of family patterns we have been especially concerned with those family styles of communicating and relating which help shape a growing child's forms of thinking.