These comments are based upon clinical work with this family over the past 2½ years. The therapy has included conjoint family sessions twice weekly, individual psychoanalytic therapy with the son Pete for 2 years, and individual psychotherapy with the mother for 3 months. The family therpists involved were Drs. Lyman C. Wynne and Juliana Day, and the individual therapists were Drs. Leslie Schaffer and Irving Ryckoff.
The authors are correct in concluding that this family is psychiatrically disturbed but does not contain a schizophrenic offspring. The presenting patient in this family is a young adult man who has been diagnosed clinically as primarily an obsessional character, with obsessional symptoms appearing sporadically.