PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND FAMILY

Abstract

A disturbed familiar environment plays a relevant role in the pathogenesis, maintenance and therapeutic approach to many psychiatric disorders arising mainly in early ages, such as anorexia, bulimia and borderline personality organization. Not only mothers, but also fathers of anorectic, bulimic and borderline patients express significant fragility of temperament and character traits. ED families often show alterations in parental relationships, that are particularly pathogenic during adolescence. In BDP-affected patients, growing processes may be impaired by lean parental cooperativeness. Temperament and character traits also display a significant role on psychogenic infertility. From these considerations, it derives that an adequate psycho-educational approach, involving counselling and eventually psychotherapy to present or future parents, seems to be useful to reduce or modify the dynamics causing parenthood’s psychopathology, as some character traits may undergo a certain degree of evolution also in adulthood