PSYCHODRAMA WITH PARENTS OF HOSPITALIZED SCHIZOPHRENIC CHILDREN

Abstract

The common attitudes, preoccupations, and fears of parents of schizophrenic children have already been well delineated in the group therapy findings reported by investigators at Bellevue Hospital in 1949 (2) and in 1952 (1). Outstanding in these parents are their resistance, their bewilderment, their intense guilt and hostility, their feelings of isolation and hopelessness. They fear taint in themselves and their non-psychotic children, fear the future, and fear social disapproval. They overemphasize their contributory roles and deny their rights to self-interest and the reality source of their frustration and despair in attempting to cope with a disoriented child.