True and not just in relation to schizophrenics!

"Although it is the mother who contributes mostly in producing the conditions which we are about to describe, we usually find in the history of schizophrenics that both parents have failed the child, often for different reasons.

Frequently the combination is as follows :

A domineering, nagging, and hostile mother who gives the child no chance to assert himself, is married to a dependant, weak man, too weak to help the child.

A father who dares not protect the child . . . because he is not able to oppose her strong personality is just as crippling to the child as the mother is."

Silvano Arieti,
Interpretation of Schizophrenia