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Referring to a clinical situation encountered as a family therapist, we will point out the difficulties for a parent suffering from a severe psychiatric disorder when his/her child starts showing symptoms. The workshop proposes a reflection on matching of patients’ and therapists’ representations and their impact on the functioning of a family. Several questions will be considered, starting from the diagnostic question of the distinction between psychical and genetic heredity. How can the child and his family be supported without minimizing difficulties? How can the child’s development and the parental abilities be supported while avoiding the self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e., that “transmission has occurred”), and without inhibiting the creative capacities of all the concerned actors (other parent, brother/sister, nursing staff)?