Family psychopathology: Cross training graduate marital and family therapy students in family assessment and psychiatric nosology

The structure of a course entitled Family Therapy with Major Psychopathology taught annually in the Mercer University Graduate Marriage and Family Therapy Program is presented. An epistemological presentation regarding the interface of psychiatric nosology and family systems assessment is discussed. Methods of diagnosing and assessing dysfunctional family systems are presented and training in individual psychiatric nosology is discussed, with particular attention given to family systems dysfunction as an etiological factor in the development of individual psychopathology. Learning techniques are discussed including lecture, discussion, case presentations, readings, and testing methods.     

The World Trade Center Disaster and the Apocalyptic

A discussion of the apocalyptic dimensions of the World Trade Center disaster, this paper considers some first-hand reports of the towers burning and collapsing, as well as the author's own experience that day watching events unfold and discussing these horrors with his patients. Several conceptual ideas are developed, including the varied ways people experienced the disaster in terms of “zones of sadness”; the organic nature of the way the disaster unfolded; the language of the victims in terms of underlying rhetorical structures of response; and psycho-historical considerations that suggest, in part, why the disaster was such a collective trauma.     

Resisting Abuse at What Cost? The Impact of Mandated Reporting Laws on the Process and Content of Therapy

Child abuse reporting is mandatory for family therapists. Little is written regarding the impact of mandated reporting and its impact on the family therapy systemic processes. This paper reviews literature on the impact on therapy of mandated reporting, and shares the results of a study designed to assess the impact of mandated reporting on family therapist's attention to systemic issues. The study demonstrates that MFTs shift their focus when the question of a mandated report arises to the detriment of systemic considerations. The institutional split between investigation and treatment of child abuse is discussed.     

Youth violence and the apocalyptic

This paper is a discussion of the apocalyptic themes in contemporary forms of youth violence, especially its totalism and end-of-the-world imagery. At Columbine High, in April 1999, two students chose the apocalyptic date of April 20, Hitler's birthday, to carry out their rampage. That violence connects with a long history of American fascination with the gun, and images of regeneration through violence itself grows out of an urban landscape of despair. The apocalyptic, however, is not simply the result of social crisis. We live with imagery of extinction and cannot fully trust a human future. The apocalyptic, in other words, itself evokes youth violence. These intersecting themes are illustrated with the case of Cliff.