AGAINST THE GRAIN: DECENTERING FAMILY THERAPYErickson, Gerald D.
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00742.xpmid: N/A
This paper is an interpretive polemic. It has two aims: (a) to clarify the concept of “system” as it is employed in family therapy, and, by doing so, to undermine and call into question the practice that follows from, or is contained within, a systemic perspective,1 (b) it will offer several suggestions towards the development of an alternative perspective which preserves the idea of system in a social network/diachronic framework. With respect to the first aim, an argument will be made that there are severe and insurmountable problems in attempting to maintain a systemic perspective, that the methodology of analysis is fatally flawed, and that the results of analysis imprisons the therapist in a framework, which though extremely powerful interpersonally, must be rejected as overly authoritarian and overly restrictive in the range of perceptions of social situations allowed. A position will be adopted advocating a move of decentering family therapy to a more peripheral space within a social network perspective. What immediately follows is a redefinition and repunctuation of what can only be considered as a highly problematic paradigm.
TOWARD CONSTRUCTING THE THERAPEUTIC SYSTEM *Andolfi, Maurizio; Angelo, Claudio
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00743.xpmid: N/A
The authors revise some of the concepts presented in their previous publications (Andolfi & Angelo, 1981; Andolfi, Nicolò‐Corigliano & Menghi, 1983) and develop them further in light of their recent clinical experience. They emphasize that the therapist is not an outside neutral observer, but an active participant in the construction of the therapeutic system. The therapist can, at different times, be caring, detached, supportive, or provocative. In the fantasy of his clients he is a person who knows how to enter into a relationship and how to move out. By entering as the third pole in various triangles and activating new dimensions of rapport, he constructs complex relationships within the evolving therapeutic process. The authors also reevaluate the importance of the individual in the family as an agent of change and as a mediator of triangular relational messages.
THE GANDHI TECHNIQUE: A NEW PROCEDURE FOR INTRACTABLE PROBLEMSSchiff, Neil P.; Belson, Richard
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00745.xpmid: N/A
Most therapists eventually encounter a client with intractable difficulties. Such difficulties have various origins. The Gandhi Technique is a simple, dramatic and seemingly effective procedure to resolve intractable difficulties. This paper describes the technique and its application in three different cases. The paper also discusses several theories which may account for the efficacy of the technique. The authors propose the technique as a procedure that can be employed to resolve many kinds of problems, regardless of their origin.
TOWARD THE IDENTIFICATION OF VARIABLES FOR EVALUATING FAMILY THERAPY WORKSHOPS *Heath, Anthony W.; McKenna, Barbara C.; Atkinson, Brent J.
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00746.xpmid: N/A
If the field of family therapy is to improve the quality of its continuing education, a useful measurement of workshop quality must be developed. In a preliminary step towards this goal, 14 expert subjects from the field of family therapy were interviewed to identify variables and relationships that can be hypothesized to influence the quality–as assessed by participants–of family therapy workshops. This paper reports the opinions of the subjects, using counts and quotations to convey as much of the raw information as space allows, and presents the methods through which the information was organized by the authors into four categories and 58 (assumed to be interdependent) variables.
EVALUATING FAMILY THERAPY: DIVERGENT METHODS, DIVERGENT FINDINGSKolevzon, Michael S.; Green, Robert G.; Fortune, Anne E.; Vosler, Nancy R.
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00747.xpmid: N/A
This study reports on a triangulation strategy for assessing family interaction, involving family members, their therapist and coders independently viewing videotapes. Utilizing a standardized scale, the Beavers‐Timberlawn Model of Family Competence, the study found weak agreement between paired assessments within the family triad, and within the therapist‐coder dyad. In addition, more complex scaling techniques such as composite “family scores” or discrepancy scores between family member dyads added no predictive power. The findings suggest that a “limit of concordance” may exist when comparing varying raters' assessments of a given family, and that methodological and/or scaling strategies designed to maximize agreement may be both fruitless and diversionary.
FAMILY ASSESSMENT DEVICE: REPORTS FROM MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND ADOLESCENTS IN COMMUNITY AND CLINIC FAMILIESSawyer, Michael G.; Sarris, Aspasia; Baghurst, Peter A.; Cross, Darryl G.; Kalucy, Ross S.
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1988.tb00748.xpmid: N/A
This study compared responses on the 60‐item version of the Family Assessment Device (FAD) obtained from mothers, fathers, and adolescents in two groups of families. The clinic group consisted of 94 families in which the adolescent had been referred to a mental health service in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. The community group consisted of 94 families, also containing an adolescent, living in the Adelaide community. Members of the clinic families consistently rated their families as less healthy than did families in the community. Importantly however, adolescents in both groups of families rated their families as significantly less healthy than their parents. Thus, while the results of the study provide support for the discriminative validity of the FAD, they also emphasize the need to consider separately self‐reports on family functioning obtained from different members of the same family.