ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

The importance of diagnosis in family treatment is emphasized. Diagnostic techniques include not only gathering historical information but also employing action-oriented measures such as family sculpting.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Family therapy is seen as complementary to individual therapy. Rationale and applicability are discussed in order to make clear the central thesis of the paper that treatment must be problem oriented, not technique oriented; that is, different levels of intervention are used depending on the family and the stage of treatment.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a working guide for a technique for the initial interview in marital therapy. There is a discussion of the seating arrangement and the opening. The therapist lays out ground rules and suggests a theoretical framework for the couple. Each partner is asked to do a self-assessment scale aimed at assessing his or her desire to stay in the marriage. This is followed by a discussion of family behavior. The session is terminated with homework for each of the partners, and a therapeutic contract is made. Nonsystematic feedback suggests the technique is useful.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a clinical essay describing a theory of marital conflict. The data were obtained by sending an unstructured questionnaire to four hundred caseworkers in 104 member agencies throughout the United States and by stimulating local study groups to prepare reports in depth on such topics. There is a "marital balance," which helps keep the family in equilibrium and is derived from courtship and in the early years of marriage. The breakdown of the "marital balance," and the conflicts resulting, are described, including the point at which couples apply for help. Good and bad prognostic factors in terms of case-work intervention and treatment of marital conflict are described. Although outcome is described as "optimistic," there are no data describing outcome results. Research implications are made.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a report of a panel discussion oriented around family dynamics and therapy held at the Thirteenth Congress of Scandinavian Psychiatrists in 1962. Fleck described findings of the Yale studies on families. Hemer talked about parental interaction and the resulting disturbed body images of schizophrenic patients. Tuovinen discussed the reactions of the family when the patient is in individual psychotherapy, and Siirale raised the question of the families of schizophrenics in relation to the "larger families" of our contemporary societies.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Noting a divergence between the studies of the family environment of the schizophrenic and classical psychoanalytical conceptions, the author reviews the problem and attempts to bring the points of view closer together. He notes four points in the pathological ego development of the schizophrenic: defective establishment of initial important object relationships, inadequate separation from symbiotic object relationships, absence in the family of the schizophrenic of healthy identfication patterns and opportunity for ego mastery, and disturbances in the process of role taking and identity formation in the family and broader environment.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Three case examples from an outpatient clinic illustrate the notion that the initial therapeutic contract can make the problems of the family worse rather than better.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This paper attempts to formulate dynamics based on clinical material from family sessions rather than based on individual reconstruction. It is believed that the identified adolescent patient regresses with narcissistic symptoms because, in the struggle for independence, he upsets the family equilibrium. The parents emerge from their adolescence with low self-esteem and the need for the support of external objects. The adolescent's separateness from the family recreates the problem for the parents and prevents his individual growth as well as his separation from the family.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is an essay on a technique in family therapy in which it is felt that there is a direct relationship between the maladaptive response to the death of a loved person and the fixity of symbiotic relationships within the family. The patient's symptom is a defense against the grief. Use of empathy by the therapist in resolving the grief helps to change the symptomatology.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

A report from Istanbul "aiming to prove to what extent the neurotic and schizoid forms of personality defects are due to familial conflicts." Sample was 50 normals and 50 mental patients 30 of whom were neurotic and 30 schizoid. The research method was psychotherapy and/or narcosis. Parents of mental patients are reported to be "a real problem" and certain factors relating to the parent-child intervention are discussed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a study describing characteristics of the partial (defined as fatherless) family. This type of family functions as a viable form fulfilling many of the same functions as a complete family, but the sexual conjugal relationship is missing, there is a continual lack of security, children learn little of "power" relationships and constantly feel derogated and ill at ease.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

A discussion of the theory, history, methods, goals and future of family therapy. Functions of the therapist are stressed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a clinical controlled study comparing the effects of "behaviorally" orientated family therapy, "client-centered" family therapy, and no therapy at all for families with a delinquent member. Sample included 99 families randomly assigned to treatments. Results indicated the efficacy of the behavioral family therapy in reducing recidivism.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Eight papers which were "working papers presented at a Seminar on Mental Health and the Family held by the WHO Regional Office for Europe at Athens in 1962" and specially commissioned chapters. These include "The Mother and the Family", "The Child in the Family", "Working Women and the Family", "Marriage Problems and their Implications for the Family", "Family Psychotherapy", "Mental Health and the Older Generation", "School for Parents," and "The Hampstead Child-Therapy Clinic."     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This detailed paper attempts to integrate the ideas on preventive psychiatry for the family with systems theory. Goals, approaches, and specific programs are given for various types of populations, e.g., families in crisis due to loss of a member.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This paper describes the family dynamics of the identified patient with manic-depressive illness. Method included chart review of 53 families in which the identified patient had bipolar, manic-depressive illness; of these 57, 43 were married. Of these 43, eight participated in two, sequential, post-hospital, psychotherapy groups. Clinical observations noted were: (a) the threat of recurring mania, (b) hostility between spouses, (c) massive denial, (d) symbiosis and dependency, (e) weak or absent father. Therapy implications were discussed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This theoretical essay offers a critique of individual psychotherapy versus the advantages of family therapy. Theories of family pathology, models, techniques, and indications, are reviewed and the relationship of family therapy to behavior therapy, multiple-impact therapy, home visits, crisis therapy, network therapy, and multiple-family group therapy are discussed.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Fifteen are described and compared, training programs for family therapists, using a scale published by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry that identifies the theoretical spectrum of each of the centers. Results indicate that the centers vary from experiential to structural (with a few in the middle that combine both orientations). It was concluded that training programs as they now exist suffer from the absence of an adequate diagnostic nomenclature for family therapy and from an insufficiently designed conceptual framework.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

From a community mental health center, a psychiatric nurse, under the supervision of a psychiatrist, presents a case in which she used family therapy. Dynamics and treatment techniques are presented. It is felt that this is an important technique for psychiatric nurses to use in such a setting.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

An essay on the disinclinations of psychotherapists to work directly with families. A sociological formulation is offered in terms of the differences in the dynamics of dyadic and triadic relationships and how they impinge on the therapist.