An analysis of the schizophrenogenic mother concept by means of the thematic apperception test.

The TAT was administered to 20 mothers of schizophrenic and 20 mothers of normal children. Children were matched on the basis of sex, age, level of education, number of siblings, and the child's position among his siblings. Mothers were matched on the basis of age, level of education, and social class. Each story was judged pathogenic, benign, or unscorable by 2 clinicians. A pathogenic score was tabulated for each mother and for each TAT card from the following formula: pathogenic/pathogenic plus benign. It was found that mothers of schizophrenic children could be differentiated significantly from mothers of normal children through an analysis of their TAT stories.