In summary, some of the characteristic forms of family dysfunction related to schizophrenic manifestations that we observed are: (1) failure to form a nuclear family in that one or both parents remain primarily attached to one of his or her parents or siblings; (2) family schisms due to parental strife and lack of role reciprocity; (3) family skews when one dyadic relationship within it dominates family life at the expense of the needs of other members; (4) blurring of generation lines in the family, e.g., (a) when one parent competes with children in skewed families, (b) when one parent establishes a special bond with a child giving substance to the schizophrenic's claim that he or she is more important to a parent than the spouse, and (c) when continued erotization of a parent-child relationship occurs; (5) pervasion of the entire family atmosphere with irrational, usually paranoid, ideation; (6) persistence of conscious incestuous preoccupation and behavior within the group; (7) sociocultural isolation of the family as a concomitant of the six preceding conditions; (8) failure to educate toward and facilitate emancipation of the offspring from the family, a further consequence of points 1–5. (9) handicapping of a child in achieving sexual identity and maturity by the parents' uncertainty over their own sex roles; and (10) presentation to a child of prototypes for identification that are irreconcilable in the necessary process of consolidating his own personality. Intensive work with these families has therapeutic implications which transcend our research plans as such and therewith the scope of this presentation. Other investigators of family dynamics have focused more on this aspect of the schizophrenia problem. The further development of rational psychotherapy, whether with the patient alone or with the family group, will depend upon better understanding and clarification of the complex interrelatedness of family dynamics, ego development, and identity formation. Thus, the study of schizophrenia and the quest for its origins leads us to the question of human development, and better understanding of the latter may illuminate the nature of schizophrenia as well as facilitate the treatment of schizophrenic patients.