Intimacy and marital depression: Interactional partners

The relationship between marital depression and lack of intimacy in a caring relationship is presented and supported with evidence from teh relevant literature. A case example is given to illustrate the therapeutic implications of this viewpoint.     

Likeness: A Hidden Ingredient in Family Therapy

The purpose of this paper is to show how one can progress from a validated theoretical model to its practical application in family therapy. The model applied in this case is the Likeness Continuum consisting of six degrees of Likeness: symbiosis, sameness, similarity, differentness, oppositeness, and alienation. A formal Task to evaluate this model in family therapy is attached to provide a basis for the evaluation of this model in the laboratory and in the therapy office.     

Of scapegoats,strawmen, and scarecrows

The thesis of this paper is that much pathology derives from our inability to deal with our feelings of hurt. The inability to deal with hurt results in the externalization of responsibility which in turn creates victims and dysfunctional behavior. The drama of the externalization of responsibility involves the same individual, the victim, or identified patient, playing three successive dysfunctional roles: the scapegoat, the strawman, and the scarecrow. This view of pathology is basically transactional because the process occurs in a familial context where all the parts of the system are intrinsically related in producing a victim.     

Beyond paradox: Issues of control

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify any possible misinterpretation of paradoxical treatment by reducing it to two major sets of issues: issues of positive refram-ing, and issues of control. Since issues of circularity and positive reframing have been considered at length and in detail in other sources, issues of straight-forward control will be considered here in greater detail than in the past. The major characteristic of symptomatic behavior is its uncontrollability. After consideration of certain paradoxes about control, guidelines to achieve control are given. The goal is to obtain control and give it away to families. The notion of control is considered within the context of positive reframing, which may be the only “circular” procedure in the whole process of intervention.