Sixty half-hour family discussions generated by the "revealed differences technique" were analyzed to determine the emotional intensity and quality (friendliness/attacking) of messages between individuals in families with schizophrenic and "normal" sons. Thirty families in each situation (schizophrenic/normal) were matched for comparison. Both groups showed similarly frequent changes in emotional intensity over the course of their conversations; but "normal" families tended to increase the emotional intensity of their messages, while "schizophrenic" families tended to decrease their intensity. The schizophrenic sons had the most messages not addressed to particular persons. Mothers and fathers of schizophrenic sons expressed significantly more messages than their sons. Except for father-to-mother speeches, significant differences occurred across family types for the quality of messages. The schizophrenic sons received far more messages with negative affects than did the psychically healthy sons, especially from their mothers. Thirteen of the 30 schizophrenic sons had to be rehospitalized within two years of their first treatment; and analysis of the two schizophrenic subgroups that this situation created revealed that these subgroups differed in the ways their affect quality changed over the course of discussions. Paradoxically, the families with rehospitalized sons resembled normal families more strongly than families with nonrehospitalized sons. The schizophrenic subgroups also had different systematic dependencies for friendliness/attacking. (RL)