Maternal psychosis and disfunctions in early interactions:clinical considerations on the case of a mother with schizophrenia and her daughter

Schizophrenia and psychotic disorders cause considerable impairment in different areas of functioning such as behaviors, cognition and emotions which lead to difficulties in many domains of everyday life such as work, social engagement and parenting. Psychotic parents show a series of interactive and intersubjective difficulties that might compromise the ability to appropriately read and respond to the babies’ cues. These features seem to compromise rearing practices and to influence to some extent the social and emotional development of the children, who show atypical behaviors during interactions with their caregivers. In this work we present some reflections on the case of a psychotic mother and her daughter living in a residential mother-child community. The dyad was observed during free play and assessed when the child was 4 and 14 months. According to the literature difficulties where found during interactions. Maternal qualities were stable during the two episodes while the child show some improvements. Clinical considerations are made about the case and implications of residential treatment are discussed.