Structural Family Therapy: An Outsider's Perspective

This subjective viewpoint outlines a plan of attack for those who, like the present writer, would like to pirate some of the useful models and orientation developed at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. Specifically focused publications abound from the talented people at the Philadelphia Clinic, but, to date, no unifying work has appeared in the literature to define just what is meant when they use the rubric "structural family therapy." The present article defines one person's understanding of the components included under that rubric. As a definition and overview, no effort is made to be comprehensive, and few illustrations show how specific strategies would be implemented. Rather, this is an effort to draw from the literature, discussions, talks, and videotapes originating at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, a central kernel that could be adapted by other agencies desiring to utilize this orientation.     

Anti-Semitism the World Over in the Twenty-first Century

The article reports the numbers and types of anti-Semitic incidents, attacks, media reports, and public opinion against Jews in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Western and Eastern European countries, the Middle East, and Australia. It also reports responses to these actions by police and local and national government officials. The period for which the data are reported is from 2000 to mid-2007. For each country, the size of the Jewish community is reported. What is manifestly clear from the data presented is that anti-Semitism is on the rise in most countries of the world. The data show a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism in Western Europe notably, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, and The Netherlands. Of those countries, France has the worse record.     

Transgenerational Obligations: Twenty-first Century Germany and the Holocaust

Abstract Has history assigned special obligations to Germans that can transcend generation borders? Do the grandchildren of Holocaust perpetrators or the grandchildren of inactive bystanders carry any obligations that are only related to their ancestry? These questions will be at the centre of this investigation. It will be argued that five different models of justification are available for or against transgenerational obligations, namely liberalism, the unique evil argument, the psychological view, a form of consequentialist pragmatism and the community‐based approach. Only two of these models stand up to philosophical scrutiny. Applying the community‐based model leads to the conclusion that young Germans do indeed have indirect, indeterminate, but strict obligations that transcend generation borders. However, it will be argued that only the obligation of compensation can be restricted to Germans. The remaining two Holocaust‐related obligations of prevention and remembrance have to be seen as universal.     

The Shaping of Family Therapy Education: An Update

The preparation and credentialing of marital and family therapists in the United States and Canada continues to be significantly affected by the role of accreditation in MFT graduate education. This report on a study of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education accredited degree programs and non-accredited programs shows some significant differences between the two paths to preparation and credentialing. Accredited programs tend to have more faculty, lower faculty-student ratios, more Approved Supervisors, more financial aid, more programs requiring practica and internships, and more emphasis on professional identification with marital and family therapy. Nonaccredited programs provide more emphasis on psychopathology, psychodiagnostic testing, and cognitive behavioral therapy.     

The Shattered Microcosm: Imperatives for Improved Family Therapy in Africa in the 21st Century

This paper provides an in-depth socio-political analysis of the basis for the limits of family therapy in Africa in the last 40 years. The goal is to make more visible the economic, social, political, and cultural factors that have combined to complicate and frustrate our macro-environments of practice. The conclusion is that family therapy in Africa cannot achieve any meaningful progress in the present millenium unless the structures of underdevelopment under which we live and work are dismantled and in their place the important preconditions for successful practice of modern family therapy are entrenched. The list of imperatives to be addressed is offered to suggest the direction along which we must move if we are to effect this adaptation.     

结构式家庭治疗的理论及其应用评析

本文从结构式家庭治疗的产生背景出发,简要阐述了其建立的相关理论基础和其基本概念。并以结构式家庭治疗在实际运用中的实用性和有待解决的问题为思考点,对结构式家庭治疗的现实运用做了较全面的分析。     

Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Foundations

Ecosystemic structural family therapy (ESFT) is a systemic, strength-based, and trauma-informed family therapy model that has evolved from structural family therapy (SFT; Minuchin in Families and family therapy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1974). ESFT is an evidenced-based family therapy approach designed to intervene with families of children who are experiencing behavioral health problems and are at the risk of out-of-home placement. In this article we review the theoretical, applied, and empirical evolution of ESFT relative to extant SFT models. ESFT is based on the fundamental assumption that child, parental, and marital functioning are inextricably linked to their relational environment. Five interrelated constructs guide ESFT therapists in their understanding of clinical problems: family structure; family and individual emotional regulation; individual differences (e.g., historical, biological, cultural, developmental); affective proximity; and family development (Gehart 2010). ESFT has an extensive evaluation history dating back to the 1980s involving over 4,000 families in 39 different sites. While ESFT is considered evidence-based, it might be more consistent with “Practice-Based Evidence” given its long, extensive, and successful, history in the child mental health system in Pennsylvania.     

结构式家庭治疗在精神分裂症患者中应用的研究概况

精神分裂症属于重性精神病,在世界人口中的患病率约为1％,其特点是病程迁延,治疗进展缓慢,且复发率以及病残率均相对较高.它是一类病因尚未完全明了的精神障碍,社会心理因素(尤其是家庭关系)在其发病、转归和预后方面具有重要作用.针对精神分裂症家庭特点的研究,推动了家庭治疗的发展,也增加了帮助患者全面康复的治疗手段.结构式家庭治疗假设家庭中被标定的个体的问题与家庭的动力和结构有着密切的联系,改变家庭的动力及其组织过程,可改变个人及家庭,可以应用于精神分裂症患者家庭中,并且具有良好的治疗效果.     

Structural Family Therapy for Children of Divorce: Case Reports

Structural family therapy techniques for treating families with a parental divorce in which a child is symptomatic are described. The family configurations considered are: mother, child, and maternal grandparents; overprotective mother and child; helpless and mildly neglectful mother; father; new family formation; and couples who divorce and marry new spouses.     

21世纪我国消化病学发展战略的若干思考

就21世纪消化病的研究与发展的方向和展望,从宏观调控与哲学思想方面提出了如下几个措施;预防为主,人文社会为本;加强基础研究,充分利用科技成果;突出重点,循序渐进;促进中西医结合,充分利用和研究中医药的临床疗效;重视人才培养,提高梯队素质。     

Family Secrecy in Family Therapy Practice: An Explorative Focus Group Study

The aim of this focus group study was to explore the experiences of family therapists working with family secrecy. Our study highlights that family secrets present important and compelling challenges for family therapists. Furthermore, our study reveals that there seem to be some basic strategies family therapists use in dealing with these challenges in therapy sessions. One basic strategy is that family therapists try to guard their position of being a trustworthy therapist for each family member by avoiding becoming stuck in family secrecy. Furthermore, therapists explore ways to guide the family toward the disclosure of the secret in order to alleviate the toxicity of the secrecy. This highlights the importance of the systemic model and how influential this perspective is in family therapy practice. Some participants, however, have in addition a second strategy they sometimes use: talking with the family about secrecy without aiming to disclose the secret. In the discussion section of the article we reflect on the possibility that in the strategic choices family therapists make conceptual issues might be involved. Furthermore, we stress the importance of further research.