Families and Family Therapy
Editorial Reviews
Review
Lyman C. Wynne, M.D., Ph.D. : This book is simply magnificent. Both novice and experienced family therapists can learn much from it. Just as Dr. Minuchin becomes quickly engaged with families, so the reader will become quickly engaged with his book. This will be a major and lasting contribution to the field of family study and therapy. I for one will make it standard reading with my students, psychiatric residents, and other trainees, as well as faculty.
Book Description
No other book in the field today so fully combines vivid clinical examples, specific details of technique, and mature perspectives on both effectively functioning families and those seeking therapy. The views and strategies of a master clinician are presented here in such clear and precise form that readers can proceed directly from the book with comparisons and modifications to suit their own styles and working situations.
Dr. Minuchin presents six chapter-length transcripts of actual family sessions-two devoted to ordinary families who are meeting their problems with relative success; four concerned with families seeking help. Accompanying each transcript is the author's running interpretation of what is taking place, laying particular stress on the therapist's tactics and maneuvers.
These lively sessions are interpreted in a brilliant theoretical analysis of why families develop problems and what it takes to set them right. The author constructs a model of an effectively functioning family and defines the boundaries around its different subsystems, whether parental, spouse, or sibling. He discusses ways in which families adapt to stress from within and without, as they seek to survive and grow.
Dr. Minuchin describes methods of diagnosing or "mapping" problems of the troubled family and determining appropriate therapeutic goals and strategies. Different situations, such as the extended family, the family with a parental child, and the family in transition through death or divorce, are examined. Finally, the author explores the dynamics of change, examining the variety of restructuring operations that can be employed to challenge a family and to change its basic patterns.
Families and Family Therapy,Salvador Minuchin,Harvard University Press,0674292367,Case studies,Family,Family psychotherapy,General,Medical,Psychiatry - General,Psychology,Psychopathology - Compulsive Behavior,Psychotherapy,Other Branches of Medicine,Psychology & Psychiatry / General
Book Contents:
Recommended Books