Expressed emotion: a family perspective.

Although mental health professionals have shown much enthusiasm for the concept "expressed emotion (EE)," little critical analysis of the concept has appeared in the literature. Placing families in dichotomous categories of high EE and low EE amounts to stereotyping; such an approach does little to help professionals in understanding the complexities of family life with a mentally ill relative. High EE is seen as a factor that maintains mental illness in a relative. Once more, families feel hurt and alienated. Once more, families feel negatively labeled, but not empathically understood.