My Family Made Me Do It: The Influence of Family Therapists'' Families of Origin on Their Occupational Choice

This study is an empirical test and exploration of the folklore about family life correlates of family therapists' occupational choice. The folklore is translated into systems concepts, including role complementarity and the mutually determining effect of process and roles. Fifty-nine family therapists, 49 siblings of the therapists, and 51 undifferentiated, non-helping professionals were compared on FACES (29), The Complementary Role Questionnaire, and on demographic data. Inconsistencies in the results led to a critique of the clinical faithfulness of current systems measures. Family therapists did not differ on FACES, but did differ in aspects of roles from their siblings and from the control professionals.     

Generation and Gender: Normative and Covert Hierarchies

This essay argues that gender is an irreducible category of clinical observation and theorizing, as crucial to the family therapy paradigm as the concept of "generation." Gender, therefore, is not a secondary, mediating variable like race, class, or ethnicity, but, rather, a fundamental, organizing principle of all family systems. The author analyzes the history and politics of family therapy in order to explicate how gender, as a co-equal concept, was erased as a universal principle of family organization, leaving only generation. The theoretical and clinical implications of situating gender at the center of family therapy are then discussed.     

Marital Therapy: Emerging Trends in Research and Practice

The marital therapy literature through August, 1972, was content-analyzed to examine trends in the research and clinical practice of marital therapists. Analyses of a 415-item Marital Therapy Bibliography revealed that: (a) The literature experienced the beginning of its major growth spurt after 1960, with about half of the marital therapy publications appearing since 1967; (b) Journals contributing the most to the development of marital therapy form a heterogeneous mixture of professional disciplines, with multidisciplinary journals demonstrating the greatest impact; (c) The nature of much of marital therapy research and practice is rapidly changing, with a growing interest in empirical and methodological issues. Implications of these emerging trends in research and practice are discussed in terms of the future of marital therapy.     

Family Drawings as a Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technique

This article concerns a family whose son was treated for two years by chemotherapy, the parents participating for part of that time in a parents' group, without any significant changes in behavior. Family therapy was initiated, with the inclusion of family art therapy, which immediately provided highly significant diagnostic data not otherwise observable. It also served as a dramatic catalytic agent for constructive change as evidenced by other family sessions.     

An Empirical Typology of Dyadic Formation

The background of and justification for empirical typologies are outlined. Various family typologies are discussed. Data from a random sample of 291 couples are subjected to a cluster analysis on the dyadic interaction, dyadic preference, dyadic stability, and identification as a pair by others of the couple. Seven types of dyadic formation were found: Uncommitted; Structurally Isolated, Wife-Supported; Self-Selected Committed; Structurally Committed; Vital; Unformed; and Wife-Removed. The types are shown to differ on value consensus and couple happiness, as well as on some background factors. The contribution of the work to theories of dyadic formation and family typologies is discussed.     

Gregory Bateson: A Final Metaphor

It is no secret that Gregory Bateson was often disturbed by interpretations and translations of his ideas by pragmatically oriented therapists. In his later years Bateson and I occasionally discussed the strategy of connecting ecosystemic epistemology to clinical contexts. One of his last letters to me proposes the form of how he thought the "battle," as he called it, should be carried out. A part of this letter is shared with the reader as one of Gregory's final metaphors.