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

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

Schizophrenia is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The author asserts that there has previously been an error in conceiving the patient as being molded completely by external circumstances. In fact, it is the patient's behavior, which is a transformation of family irrationality, that constitutes schizophrenia. In 75 per cent of cases of schizophrenia seen by the author in private practice, the mother did not fit the image of the so-called “schizophrenogenic mother.” In this technique for teaching family therapy, the students take the roles of the family. Procedures, selection of players, formulating the problem, the value of the experience, and ground rules are described. This is a case report and follow-up over nine years of an alcoholic woman. The patient and husband were treated for 35 sessions by cotherapists in conjoint marital therapy. Although there was improvement in the family patterns and in drinking behavior during the treatment, the improvement did not last after termination. The case suggests that marital therapy in the absence of other treatment interventions is ineffective in changing the long-run course of women alcoholics. Based on the author's practice on an inpatient unit that specializes in the study of aggressive behavior, he describes family dynamics and treatment when the identified patient suffers from “episodic violent behavior.” The sample focuses on adolescents, most of whom had episodes of suicidal behavior and who had some evidence of “organic involvement.” Typical family patterns include overly close alliances by the adolescent with one or both parents and transmission by parents of inconsistent values regarding aggression. Family therapy is seen as the preferred treatment approach and emphasizes family ways of handling dyscontrol episodes and the responsibility of the patient for his or her actions. No results are reported. This study attempts to link family variation and core relationships in types of families with the mental health of children. Sample was from a black, poor, urban community defined in terms of the adults present in the home. Eighty-six family types were found falling into ten major classes. Measures of mental health in children were done on psychological well-being of the children and on Social Adaptational Status. Results indicate that family type is strongly related over time to child's SAS and his or her psychological well-being. Mother-alone families entail the highest risk in terms of social maladaptation and psychological well-being of the child; the presence of certain second adults has important ameliorative functions—mother/grandmother families being nearly as effective as mother/father families, with mother/stepfather families similar to mother-alone in regard to risk. Inferences from this data and implications and interventions are discussed. This is a clinical essay on the role of family therapy for black families. In addition to the usual family stresses, black families are subject to the additional strain of discrimination. Support is achieved mostly from the family and from the kinship network, rather than the community. Treatment strategies for this situation are proposed. This essay reviews recent regulations concerning consent procedures and protection of privacy as they apply to children and their families. Rigorous sample selection, nearly complete follow-up, and objective assessment of outcome are virtually impossible at this point. It is concluded that compliance with current “subjects' rights” regulations sometimes seems potentially more harmful to the subjects than the research itself. One case example is presented in support of the hypothesis that brief family therapy has the potential to lead to individual personality changes that are long-lasting. The identified patient was a 15½ year old boy with the symptom of having a falsetto voice. Father, mother, and child were seen in twelve family therapy sessions with changes in the boy's self-image documented in “man-figure” drawings. Nine-month follow-up revealed no recurrence of the presenting symptom and an improvement in social and familial relationships of the identified patient. This is another in a series of papers from a divorce-counseling project. The focus in this paper is on preventive clinical interventions developed for children of various ages in divorcing families. Developmental assessment was achieved with a “brief” history from the parents, detailed information from school, and “direct observation” of the child. This paper covers treatment strategies, interventions, failures, therapist's role, and professional dilemmas in divorce counseling of 60 families with 131 children between the ages of 3 and 18 at the time of divorce. The technique of counseling was to see one parent and child separately by the same therapist three to six times over a three-month period. This is a research study to provide data on the question of whether the disturbed behavior of parents with a schizophrenic child preexists or is a response to an identified patient's pathology. Method was to administer a conceptual task called the Twenty Questions Task individually to each family member and to the family as a unit with a sample of 36 schizophrenic families, 13 non-schizophrenic controls, and 38 normal controls. Results “indicated that far more schizophrenic sons than control sons were much more efficient individually than with their families.” A number of schizophrenic sons performed competently as individuals, but the subsequent performance of parents and sons together on the same task was generally inferior to that of the son alone. Results suggest that the parental behavior plays a part in the etiology of schizophrenia.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Two case examples are presented in support of the hypothesis that family therapy is useful in situations in which the identified patients are students at a university counseling center. The core dynamic issues focus around separation from parents. It is felt that the family therapy is a useful adjunct to the individual psychotherapy.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a clinical essay with case examples stressing the point that pathological families have not been proven to be a cause of schizophrenia and therefore indiscriminant blame and mistrust of the family, overtly or covertly, by the treating therapist is not helpful to the identified patient or his family. Suggestions to help therapists treat families are made.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a clinical study attempting to discern differences in parental behavior toward children considered "normal" (that is, having never received special psychological, educational or legal attention). Sample was 25 children (11 boys and 14 girls) ages 10 to 11, from upper middle class families with both parents living at home. Families were rated on a family task, children on adjustment using the Briston Social Adjustment Guide. Children were divided into three categories—adjusted, middle, and disturbed—with nine in the first group, eight each in the second and third. Significant differences were found between the adjusted and the disturbed groups for parental behavior during the family discussion task. Disturbed mothers were found to be "over-prominent and over-attentive"; disturbed fathers were withdrawn.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

An essay describing the method of training for Social Workers learning family therapy (here called "family-group treatment"). Group processes as a method for supervision are used in preference to individual supervision because of "the requirements of treating the family rather than the individual." Specific methods used and discussed here are group supervision, sitting in on a family session, viewing through a one way screen, films, and tape recordings.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

A variety of studies show that American parents have changed their child-rearing techniques in the past twenty-five years. What, then, of the products of these techniques; has the American child changed? No solid comparative data exist, but one may infer from known relationships between socialization techniques and outcome. Outcome varies by sex of child and authority-nurturance division between parents. Many signs point to the conclusion that a generation lacking initiative, inner direction, and responsibility has been produced. Recent changes suggest that parents may now be raising a more achievement-oriented generation, the motivation being inculcated by mothers in a family atmosphere of "cold democracy."     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Family care is defined as "the practice of placing mental patients in foster homes, either as an alternative to or as a transition from continued hospitalization." After tracing the development of family care, the authors suggest that patients are faced with the dilemma of returning to their families where they are caught up in a pathological role or remaining in the artificial environment of a hospital with pressures toward regression. A third alternative is family care. Group therapy with after-care patients and similar techniques are said to be appropriate for family care patients with the new environment providing a testing ground for patterns in living and an emotional climate for growth.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

A discussion of conflict in the family based upon films of family therapy sessions. The emphasis is upon prejudicial scapegoating within a pattern of interdependent roles: those of the persecutor, the scapegoat and the family healer. It is said that disturbed families break up into warring factions with a leader of each faction, a victim of prejudicial attack, and a person who provides the emotional antidote. The health-sickness continuum is influenced by the shifting balance of the struggle.