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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Concensus Rorschach interaction patterns of families with an asthmatic child

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This paper reports a study of interaction in families with a child suffering from bronchial asthma. Eighteen families, subdivided into two groups according to the severity of the child's illness, were given the Consensus Rorschach following Willi's procedure. Quantitative assessments of family members on cognitive-affective functioning and social interaction were obtained. Factor analysis of quantitative scores revealed diversified interactional strategies among family member groups. Families as wholes varied as to patterns of cross-generational alliances and/or domination of different family members and could be clustered into four interactional pattern groups. There was no correlation between this grouping and the severity of the child's illness. Some measures of cognitive-affective functioning differentiated between family members of asthmatics from the two severity subgroups. The correspondence of these findings to prevailing family theories of psychosomatic illness is discussed.