Family Bereavement and Cultural Diversity: A Social Developmental Perspective

This article offers an integrative, interdisciplinary model of bereavement as a family developmental process that unfolds in cultural context. A critique of cultural assumptions highlights the culture-bound nature of prevailing North American practices, which view grief as an isolated individual experience and emphasize detachment from the dead as a way to promote recovery. Death and grief precipitate two kinds of family change, both guided by culture yet uniquely experienced and interpreted by individual families: 1) recreating the family without a key family member; but capable of coping with both existing and new tasks; and 2) incorporating the death into an ongoing but irrevocably altered family life-cycle developmental process. In supporting family change after a death, family therapists need to collaborate with grieving families in examining the goodness of fit between their unique circumstances and the bereavement expectations of their community and culture. Four case examples are presented, two of which will apply this social developmental model to emphasize transformations of attachment to the deceased — rather than detachment — that will support the ongoing family development of grieving families.     

Looking at Systems as Process

This article proposes that the social systems family therapists are concerned with may usefully be conceived of as interactive processes. It discusses limitations to the organismic view, in which social systems are seen as autonomous entities with boundaries, internal structures, and self-perpetuating behaviors, and argues, from Maturana and Varela, that social systems are qualitatively different from organisms. It develops from chaos theory an alternative view in which social systems are seen as complex nonlinear processes. It proposes that this view can free the therapist from the notions of family dysfunction and the systemic function of symptoms, and from reifications in which the family is seen as having covert rules, keeping secrets, neutralizing the therapist, and the like. This view leads to a redefinition of the therapist's place in the system and to the conclusion that family therapists can only influence systemic process by working with individuals.     

A Family’s Coming Out Process: Systemic Change and Multiple Realities

The paucity of investigative studies exploring the coming out process of families was the impetus for this case study with a six member family-of-choice. In-depth interviews highlight the complexities of negotiating family rules, journey with the family as they struggled with their new identity, and reveal how the reflexive process contributed to the family’s co-creation of new stories. The four themes that emerged (embracing gay identity, integrating as a family, building social networks, and social awakening), offer details of how the family reconfigured from the rubble of confusion to become more cohesive, awakened and empowered. Implications for clinical practice with families with gay members are addressed.     

Theme-focused family therapy: the inner emotional world of the family

This paper is an account of a method of family work developed for social workers in social services departments which allows them to work with the emotional impact on children and adults of traumatic events in family life. Theme-focused family therapy has been designed to meet the needs of the families and also to enable social workers and their supervisors to develop both psychodynamic and systemic perspectives m their work with families. It is a staged approach, moving from individual work to a structured family interview through to a series of theme-focused family sessions. It is phased in this way both to facilitate the development of a therapeutic attachment between social worker and family and to take account of the crises that can interrupt planned work in social services departments. Theme-focused family therapy is carried out in partnership with families, and gives children a voice and a leading role in the therapeutic process. The approach is illustrated with a case example.     

Diamonds in the Rough: Bridging Gaps in Supports for At-Risk Immigrant and Refugee Youth

Immigrant youth come to Canada with enormous potential to make a significant, positive contribution to the future of their adopted country. In many cases, this potential is realised; in others, it is not. The ease with which immigrant youth and their families integrate into Canadian society has a strong impact on their futures; those who become marginalised during this process risk becoming alienated or involved with the criminal justice system. Interviews were conducted with 12 stakeholders (including representatives from social service agencies, community groups and the criminal justice and forensic mental health systems) who frequently come into contact with immigrant and refugee youth involved in criminal and/or gang activity. Based on the family, individual, peer, school and community risk and protective factors reported to have an influence on immigrant and refugee youth, recommendations are made for bridging gaps in programming and policy initiatives to support at-risk youth.     

Examining Religious Disaffiliation Through a Family Systems Lens: Implications for Treatment

Religious disaffiliation can be emotionally and relationally challenging. Research indicates that people who disaffiliate can experience grief, emotional distress, and even posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Research also indicates that disaffiliation can put strain on family relationships, yet exactly how this impacts the family system as a whole is much less understood. This qualitative study, using grounded theory analytic procedures, fills a gap in the literature by utilizing a systemic approach to explore the impact of religious disaffiliation on family units. Twelve participants from five different families representing five different religions were interviewed. At least one disaffiliated member and one affiliated member were interviewed from each family system. Results offered a deeper understanding of (a) the relational impact of religious disaffiliation and (b) the relational challenges of navigating interactions after disaffiliation. Six clinical implications are offered with the goal of helping family members understand their unique experience of this transitional time, process their emotions, enhance distress tolerance skills, and effectively communicate with one another in a spirit of kindness and respect to prevent relational wounds, expedite the healing process, and protect family bonds.     

Is there a place for individual subjectivity within a social constructionist epistemology?

The epistemological turn towards social constructionism has become well established within the field of family systemic therapy. Social constructionism has provided therapists with a theoretical rationale for the concentration upon the social context within which individuals and families live their lives. This is a philosophical position that pushes to the margins the positivist premise that individuals have fixed and measurable personalities in favour of a discourse which proposes that the person is encountered differently within different social contexts. Prompted by the growing interest in systemic practice with individuals and by the rediscovery of the psychoanalytic canon within family therapy literature, the adequacy of this position is examined and an attempt is made to open up a space within social constructionist discourse for a theory of individual subjectivity. Findings from a research project are the starting point for this venture. These findings are understood through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, with particular reference to the work of Jacques Lacan.     

The Concept of Family Resilience: Crisis and Challenge

The concept of resilience, the ability to withstand and rebound from crisis and adversity, has valuable potential for research, intervention, and prevention approaches aiming to strengthen couples and families. Resilience has been viewed as residing within the individual, with the family often dismissed as dysfunctional. This article advances a systemic view of resilience in ecological and developmental contexts and presents the concept of family resilience, attending to interactional processes over time that strengthen both individual and family hardiness. Extending our understanding of normal family functioning, the concept of family resilience offers a useful framework to identify and fortify key processes that enable families to surmount crises and persistent stresses. There are many pathways in relational resilience, varying to fit diverse family forms, psychosocial challenges, resources, and constraints. Shared beliefs and narratives that foster a sense of coherence, collaboration, competence, and confidence are vital in coping and mastery. Interventions to strengthen family resilience have timely relevance for weathering the rapid social changes and uncertainties facing families today.     

Why families of children with biological deficits require a systems approach.

A number of assumptions related to the systemic therapists' view of family functioning in the case of biological deficit in the child are presented and challenged. The families' behavior, it is argued, may not be primarily responsible for the difficulties of their biologically impaired offspring. Severity of handicap need not be directly linked to stress in these families, nor is avoiding an individual diagnosis helpful to them. To further clarify the relevant issues, the family's "reactions" to a dysfunctional member, along with the professionals' previously unhelpful approaches to dealing with the impairment of these children, are presented. Finally, the therapeutic implications of the position presented in this article are drawn, and specific recommendations for working with these families are offered.     

Power and influence in the environment of family therapy

This paper explores some of the ways in which family therapy theory and practice limits an appreciation of the contexts of families and family therapists. It focuses particularly upon how the rules which underline patterns of relationships in social systems are made and maintained more by one part of a system than by another, and considers this (a) within families, (b) within various aspects of the social environment of families, and (c) within the organizational contexts of family therapists. It then proposes that the systemic thinking which family therapists apply to families is potentially applicable to wider contexts including international relationships.     

Power and influence in the environment of family therapy*

This paper explores some of the ways in which family therapy theory and practice limits an appreciation of the contexts of families and family therapists. It focuses particularly upon how the rules which underlie patterns of relationships in social systems are made and maintained more by one part of a system than by another, and considers this (a) within families, (b) within various aspects of the social environment of families, and (c) within the organizational contexts of family therapists. It then proposes that the systemic thinking which family therapists apply to families is potentially applicable to wider contexts including international relationships.     

Family response to traumatic brain injury

The stress experienced by families with a member who has experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has recently been addressed in the counselling and rehabilitation literature. Given that rehabilitation centres have physical restoration of the patient as a primary mandate, the emotional and social adjustment needs of family members are often overlooked. Information on TBI and its effect on families will help counsellors and psychologists contribute to the family adjustment process.     

A Psychological Support for Peacekeeping Soldiers and their Families: A Preliminary Model

Being a military family can be challenging, and the demands placed on soldiers and their families can become very complex. Military deployments are part of a soldier's military career that cannot be avoided and have the potential to influence military families directly. Separation within a military family is an inherent consequence of military deployments. Military deployments consist of various phases. Each phase has unique emotional and psychological challenges attached to it. These challenges can significantly influence every member in the military family. It is therefore imperative that the military, soldier and military families be sensitized around these phases and their unique challenges. A model is proposed to empower military families in the face of deployment.     

HIV/AIDS and the family: a review of research in the first decade

Most studies of the psychosocial implications of HIV/AIDS have been focused on the individual. This paper reviews the small but growing body of research into the impact of HIV/AIDS on the family system. Special reference is made to definitions of the family, same-sex relationships and the African family. The impact of HIV/AIDS on the family is discussed in terms of social stigma, isolation and secrecy, stress and coping, social support, communication and disclosure, responses to illness, and changing structure and roles in families. It is anticipated that in the 1990s, the study of the family will become a dominant topic in HIV/AIDS-related research.     

The Family in Us: Family History,Family Identity and Self-Reproductive Adaptive Behavior

This contribution is an essay about the notion of family identity reflecting shared significant experiences within a family system originating a set of signs used in social communication within and between families. Significant experiences are considered as experiences of events that have an immediate impact on the adaptation of the family in a given socio-ecological and cultural context at a given historical time. It is assumed that family history is stored in a shared “family memory” holding both implicit and explicit knowledge and exerting an influence on the behavior of each family member. This is described as transgenerational family memory being constituted of a system of meaningful signs. The crucial dimension underlying the logic of this essay are the ideas of adaptation as well as self-reproduction of systems.     

Social class tensions within families

Abstract

The upward or downward social class mobility of an individual family member can result in tensions between the individual and the rest of the family, tension which is heightened because it rarely is identified and named as a class issue. This article explores the issue of class, identifies common situations in which class tensions occur within families, and discusses clinical considerations.     

Families and Deinstitutionalization: An Application of Bronfenbrenner's Social Ecology Model

Bronfenbrenner's social ecology model is applied to families that include a member with a developmental disability who are involved in the process of transition from institution to community. An overview of the model is presented as well as discussion of counselors' use of it in providing services to families in this situation. The social ecology perspective can be applied to enhance understanding of the families and to provide a framework for structuring family support during the community transition process.     

When the Woman Presents Herself as "the Patient"

The thesis of this paper is that women are delegated by their families, by sociocultural norms and stereotypes, and by the psychotherapeutic community to perform in the role of patient. In many cases women are diagnosed, labeled and treated for supposed intrapsychic difficulties without adequate consideration of the relationships of the woman's social system to the dysfunction. This acceptance of the notion of intrapsychic causation in the woman, while ignoring the larger family system, grows out of a cultural world view which stresses individual self-determination is economically rewarding for the therapeutic community (two-thirds of the client population is female), it does a disservice to the woman and her family. A societal myth is perpetuated of the women as the "problem-bearer" and the one who is "sicker" or "crazier" than others in her family. The woman's symptoms need to be viewed as having interpersonal reality; symptoms are tactics of communication not mythological internalized driving forces with special attraction to the female psyche. An attempt will be made to outline how therapists may unwittingly collude in perpetuating the myth of individual dysfunction in the woman. Ideas are presented for viewing the woman's request for service as an attempt to solve a systemic problem and how therapists, by recognizing the function of the symptom in the woman's social system, can help the woman better define and solve the problem.     

The “Shadow-of-Death” and Its Implications in Four Families,Each with a Hospitalized Schizophrenic Member

This paper summarizes the salient points from tape recordings of conjoint sessions with four families, each with a hospitalized schizophrenic member carrying a poor prognosis. As the sessions progressed, a profound and overwhelming sense of frustration, foreboding, doom and despair emerged, as if the family were attempting to preserve what seemed destined to die. Each family as a whole was involved in what can best be described as a vicious circle of displaced and distorted mourning for a dead family member. This had deep and unresolved emotional significance for one or other parent. This same parent was also more obviously involved with the schizophrenic child, whose own symbolic family role included both being protected from anything in life carrying the possibility of death and distracting others from the source of this “shadow-of-death.”