Families and Family Therapy - Hardcover

Minuchin, Salvador

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674292367 ISBN 13: 9780674292369

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1974

Synopsis

No other book in the field so fully combines vivid clinical examples, specific details of technique, and mature perspectives on both effectively functioning families and those seeking therapy. The views and strategies of a master clinician are presented here in such clear and precise form that readers can proceed directly from the book with comparisons and modifications to suit their own styles and working situations.

Salvador Minuchin presents six chapter-length transcripts of actual family sessions―two devoted to ordinary families who are meeting their problems with relative success; four concerned with families seeking help. Accompanying each transcript is the author’s running interpretation of what is taking place, laying particular stress on the therapist’s tactics and maneuvers.

These lively sessions are interpreted in a brilliant theoretical analysis of why families develop problems and what it takes to set them right. The author constructs a model of an effectively functioning family and defines the boundaries around its different subsystems, whether parental, spouse, or sibling. He discusses ways in which families adapt to stress from within and without, as they seek to survive and grow.

Dr. Minuchin describes methods of diagnosing or “mapping” problems of the troubled family and determining appropriate therapeutic goals and strategies. Different situations, such as the extended family, the family with a parental child, and the family in transition through death or divorce, are examined. Finally, the author explores the dynamics of change, examining the variety of restructuring operations that can be employed to challenge a family and to change its basic patterns.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This book published by Harvard University Press, is a landmark textbook that will greatly facilitate the task of the teacher of family therapy and theory.

About the Author:

Salvador Minuchin, M.D., is Research Professor at the New York University Medical School. He is author ofFamilies and Family TherapyandFamily Kaleidoscopeand coauthor ofPsychosomatic Families: Anorexia Nervosa in Context.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0674292367
• ISBN 13: 9780674292369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268