Schiffian Reparenting: A Critical Evaluation

Abstract

This article describes the process of reparenting using transactional analysis. The author explores the controversial history of reparenting as practiced by Jacqui Schiff, beginning in 1965 when she and her husband began taking young people with schizophrenia into their home. Schiff experienced these youngsters as “childlike” and in desperate need of looking after. She was aware that she engaged in practices that might outrage conventional psychotherapists, and when confronted by her colleagues, she moved location several times in order to carry on her work. The article tracks critics of Schiff and the Cathexis model, including some who consider reparenting to be brainwashing and Cathexis to be a cult. The author and several members of the TA community share their personal experience of reparenting and/or training with Schiff.

Keywords:

• Jacqui Schiff
• ITAA ethics
• reparenting
• therapeutic community
• schizophrenia
• transactional analysis
• ego states
• child development
• symbiosis
• touch-stroking

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cholena Mountain

Cholena Mountain, MSc (TA Psych), MSc (Personality Disorder), a Supervising Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy), PgDip Clinical Supervision, works in private practice seeing individual clients and groups for therapy and individual supervisees and groups for supervision. She also works with police officers who work in high-risk roles in which there is a potential for them to develop post-traumatic stress disorder or to need independent supervision to talk about the personal impact of their work. She is on the staff at The Berne Institute in Kegworth, United Kingdom, and on the Quality Assurance Team. She marks assignments and coordinates the Berne Diploma exams and is one of the tutors for the exam group in which trainees prepare for their written and oral CTA exams. Cholena can be reached at 30, Livingstone Lane, Earl Shilton, Leicester, LE9 7EZ, United Kingdom; [email protected].