“Despite the limits of our objective understanding of human behaviour, we have not been especially constrained in terms of our willingness to passionately adhere to certain viewpoints about the nature of human problems. We demonstrate against war as if we undertand the cause of war. We could just as easily demonstrate against schizophrenia.
Our understanding of that phenomenon is about as limited as our understanding of war. We continually admonish ourselves for what we do or do not do and continually implore each other to be different. There appears to be an infinite supply of people available to tell us the “right” way to think and the “right” way to act.
The vast majority of the admonitions and directives that swirl around us are hopelessly entangled in subjectivity.
Depending on the phenomenon under consideration, we blame some thing, some person, some group, some whatever for its presence. We blame genes, chemicals, parents, schools, a variety of “bad” influences, and certain politicians for what goes wrong.”
Kerr & Bowen, “Family Evaluation”