The Study of Self-Metaphors in the Families of Schizophrenia Patients Compared to the Healthy Families

The aim of this survey is the recognition of self-metaphors and the qualities of metaphors either positive or negative in the families of schizophrenia patients. The research was contrastive-descriptive in which 20 families schizophrenia patients who were hospitalized in mental hospitals, were compared to 20 families of those who were mentally sound, but were demographically similar to the psychic group. The data were analyzed using “Osgood's Semantic Discrimination Test” (SDT). The result indicated that the self- metaphors of families of schizophrenia patients were more negative than the families of healthy individuals. Moreover, the results revealed that certain metaphors which were used in the families of schizophrenia patients were responsible for the disorder. However, there was no significant difference between the self-metaphors of family-members of schizophrenia patients with each other.