Schizophrenia & Family

When a person is judged by his/her action, the reason given is usually the character. So how is the character shaped?

Are we born with it? (nature) or Are we brought up with it (nurture)?

R.D. Laing in his Sanity, Madness and the Family (1970), explains the ideas about the role of family in causing psychological disturbance and schizophrenia.

So do I agree with that? Hmmm, partly.

Case 1
A guy who is self-pity and always avoids meeting people he knows. He is very cautious to have someone close to him, hence he doesnt have any close friends. He has the tendency to feel that he is a failure and everyone looks down on him. As a matter of fact, some people don't even remember who he is.

Case 2
A guy who is always buying the latest gadgets and showing them off to his friends. He likes to make comparisons with his friends and make sure that he 'wins' in every circumstances. At the end of the day, nobody really cares of what he has.

So, these are the two cases at both ends of the scale. By examining them, they both maybe the results of a certain kind of family upbringings.

The first guy is from a broken family and is very conscious about what people think / ask of him and his family.

The second guy comes from a lower socio-economic background and has always be envious of his friends from a higher socio-economic background. Thus when he starts working, the first thing he does is to make sure he 'wins' materialistically.

Do all criminals come from some sort of distorted families? Is schizophrenia a result from an abnormal family? So, are our characters really shaped by FAMILY?