Addictive buying: causes, processes, and symbolic meanings. Thematic analysis of a buying addict's diary

The aims of this study were twofold. On the one hand, to reach an understanding of, and to illustrate the experience of addictive buying and, on the other, to throw some light on the controversial subject of addicts' personal responsibility for their behavior. With these aims, a thematic analysis of an extensive diary written by a compulsive buyer is presented. Four themes emerge from the analysis: the defining characteristics of addiction to buying that determine the boundary separating it from other forms of impulsive or careless buying; several causal factors; the role that money and material objects play in family relationships and friendships through the symbolic meanings they adopt; and the relationship of personal values with impulsiveness and self-control. In view of the results, the moral model of addiction to buying is discussed, and an explanatory model of the ambivalence that is characteristic of addiction to buying is proposed, based on a personal hierarchy of values.     

The family life cycle: Impressions

This paper is concerned with the kind of everyday family experiences that most of us have gone through. It is written in a style that is more poetry than science, but, like poetry, probably gets closer to the truth about the nature of family life than does more technical conceptual material. Too often professionals write in such abstract, theoretical terms about families that they end up sounding unlike any family you ever knew. In this paper, I tried to write about the natural, typical incidents that occur to people as they get married, have kids, grow old, and die. It is hoped that the reader will connect and identify with these evocations, get shocks of recognition, as well as, who knows, some private chuckles. Families are where you live, emotionally and physically. Our family experiences — the passions, hates, loves, mysteries, paradoxes, measureless sacrifices, joys, injustices, jealousies, storms, comforts, bonds, and patterns— are burned into the cauldrons of the mind. The family memories lived through intimate others persist through space and time, sometimes sharply, usually as vague wisps of unremembered pasts, shaping the meanings of our lives and those close to us. The family, not anatomy, is destiny.a founder and past president of the American Family Therapy Academy.Editor's Note: This paper by Jim Framo was written 25 years ago, but for various reasons has not been published until now. Despite the fact that it focuses on the traditional middleclass family in the United States, it has wider implications and appeal than that focus.     

The Georgia family Q-sort: an observational measure of family functioning

The development of a new observational measure of family functioning using a Q-sort methodology is described. The Q-sort is one way of obtaining observer measures of family that complements both microcoding and global ratings of family processes. Evidence for construct validity is presented along with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the Q-sort approach to family observation.     

The family as its own reflecting team: a family therapy method

Social research has suggested that people, in general, tend to overestimate their skills and abilities. Interestingly, research has found that peers are better predictors of a person's behaviour than self‐assessment, suggesting that others know us better than we know ourselves. Family therapists should be aware that family members might not give accurate accounts of themselves. In order to overcome this problem, therapists should incorporate peer assessments into therapy. Reflecting teams and videotaping do incorporate peer assessments, yet these methods can be impractical. This article describes a method of family therapy using enactments as a means of setting up the family as its own reflecting team. The method suggests that the family and therapist switch roles several times during the enactment, and then encourages a discussion on the peer observations on how each person addresses a problem in the family. Case examples illustrate how feedback from peers promotes insights.     

Parental religiosity,abuse history and maintenance of beliefs taught in the family

Both anecdotal and empirical investigations have indicated that childhood sexual abuse may negatively impact one's religiosity as an adult. However, few studies have examined the impact of other forms of abuse on the development of religiosity. In the present study, 167 participants recruited from a Pacific Northwest university completed questionnaires measuring parental religiosity, as well as both physical and emotional abuse history, to assess the impact of these factors on the participants’ maintenance of beliefs taught in the family. Results demonstrated that report of abuse was negatively associated with belief maintenance. Alternatively, parental religiosity was positively associated with belief maintenance, and negatively associated with report of abuse. These findings are discussed in terms of social learning theory and the lifestyle behaviours of religious individuals.     

The single-parent family: an author's reflection

In view of the dramatic rise in the divorce rate, this paper proposes that separation and divorce be viewed as normal phases of the family life cycle and be reframed in positive terms, such as a couple "being ready for a new relationship" or children "being the lucky possessors of two families instead of one." It further makes a plea for more extensive family support services, with the goal of prevention and education rather than just amelioration of problems after they have become evident.     

The matryoshka: The three-generation soviet family in Israel

Among the 200,000 immigrants who entered Israel in 1990 were a considerable number of families headed by single mothers. Their most prominent feature was the fact that a three-generation system—a single Soviet mother, her own mother, and a single child—formed the family unit. Rooted in changes occurring in the Soviet family life cycle over the past 70 years, this configuration is uniquely self-contained. This article is an early inquiry into a new family structure that will become part of the social fabric of the multi-ethnic society in Israel. The challenge will be to help in the absorption process by recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating the strengths this type of family brings with it and to plan support networks to substitute for those left behind.A previous version of this article was presented at the Third World Family Therapy Congress, June 2–6, 1991, Jyvaskyla, Finland.     

The family void: treatment and theoretical aspects of the synchronous family paradigm

The synchronous paradigm is a model of families whose members remain uninvolved and disconnected from each other yet somehow maintain relatively unvarying or even rigid patterns of behavior. In the synchronous paradigm, calm agreement and harmonious unity of action are valued above all. The concept of synchronous operation was first formulated by Constantine to solve certain theoretical problems growing out of the work of Kantor and Lehr. The theory has been elaborated upon through linkages established with other clinical and theoretical models of family dysfunction. Clinical experience in treating synchronous families has now contributed more detailed and practical understanding. Clinically, disabled synchronous families may present as bland, boring, or even death-like. They may have considerable difficulty accommodating to necessary developmental changes or to the demands of life crises, employing a variety of strategies to maintain the appearance of synchrony at the expense of adaptation. Their ability to ignore change and to absorb interventions can tax the abilities of even the most creative and energetic therapist. On the other hand, the quiet efficiency of the family and the social sensitivity of its members can be strong assets. Awareness of their strengths and special vulnerabilities can help the family therapist work more effectively with synchronous families.     

Called home: The creation of family life

Engendering family life is a spiritual process (theosis) based on human ethological constants of gender difference and generational turnover. Recent studies on ethnicity suggest that such a process retrieves a primordial sense of the human species as a whole, humankind. Families, especially in this broad sense, link together the living and the dead and, at their best, morally empower individuals who link their destinies to such a vision of creation and human health. Reference is made to work on human strengths and speciation by Erik Erikson and to that on maternal thinking by Sara Ruddick. A political program by which an ideology of familism can be made is offered.He is also Chairman of the Board of Management, Campus Kindergarten Company (Australia), Pty. Ltd.     

The recovering female alcoholic: A family affair

Supported by a review of relevant literature and a case study, the author argues that family therapy intervention enhances the likelihood of a female alcoholic's positive prognosis. With a basis in systems theory, family therapy views the family as a system and, hence, perceives the alcoholism as a symptom of that family. A profile of the female alcoholic, how her drinking affects her family, and the role that family therapy plays in the recovery process are examined.