A Brief History of
Family Therapy
PSYC5790 Family Counseling:
Theory and Practice
Historical Context
Freud
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Implicit family influence
Jung
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Wholeness
Synthesis of opposites
Adler
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Behavior in context
Family structure
Really did a lot of family
therapy
Sullivan
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Personality inseparable from
interpersonal
Therapist as a part of this
(not “observer”)
Fromm-Reichman
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Extended Sullivan
Schizophrenic Family Therapy
“Schizophrenogenic Mother”
(1948)
Allport
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Acknowledged
social/contextual nature
Lewin
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Field Theory
Dewey and Bentley
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Context
Relation of observer/observed
Others: Horney, James,
Barker, Goldstein
Cybernetics (1940's)
Multiple Disciplines

Physics, Math, etc. (initially hard sciences)
Organization, patterns, processes

vs. matter, material, and content
Feedback mechanisms

Communication
WWII
Interdisciplinary approach
Man and machine together (as a
system)
Teleology - purposive behavior
Gregory Bateson (40's & 50's)
Anthropologist
Translated language of “science” into
social science and communication terms
Translated psychology into
communication terms
Gregory Bateson (2)
Communication Theory

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Paradox
Logical types
Levels of communication
 Conflicted levels

Schizophrenia
 Schizophrenogenic mothers (communication)
 Double-bind hypothesis
 Key concept is that psychopathology is interpersonal, not
intrapsychic
Post WWII
Zeitgeist
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Faith in science
Cybernetics (physics)
Systems theory (biology)
Lots of Support for Research

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Think tank
Exploration/experimentation
Nathan Ackerman
Child psychoanalyst
“Grandfather of family therapy”
Family focus in treatment

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Child and mother
Role relationships
Home visits
Still rather individual
 actually both
Family Process Journal
Murray Bowen
Psychoanalyst
Mother/child symbiosis

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Hospitalized both!
Then whole families
Developed major theoretical approach
Carl Whitaker
Psychiatrist
“Atheoretical” (very unorthodox)
“Experiencing with families”
Conference where local families brought
in and demos done
“Psychotherapy of the absurd”
Theodore Lidz
MD (psychiatrist)
Schizophrenia, too
Family role in disorder
Development beyond childhood
Attacked Freudian conceptualizations
(did it well)
Described marital dynamics

schism and skew
Lyman Wynne
Schizophrenia research

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Family importance
Communication
 pseudomutuality
 pseudohostility

Hospitalized families
Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy
Hungarian psychoanalyst (MD)
Founded family therapy department in
Philadelphia (1957)
Intergenerational focus
“Ethical redefinition of the relational
context”
John Bell
[One of] the first doing family therapy
Saw family as problem, not individual
Used group dynamic stuff to
conceptualize families (what other
literature was there?)
Christian Midelfort
Psychoanalyst
Family therapist
One of the first books on family therapy
(1957)
Salvador Minuchin
Argentinian child psychiatrist
Wiltwyck School for Boys
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Juvenile delinquent boys
Low income, inner city
The Stage Is Set
Previous thoughts and thinkers set
stage for formal articulation of theories
Paradigm Shift (60's)

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Kuhn: Scientific Revolution
From People to “Schools”
MRI (not really a school at
first)
Major players cycled through MRI

Bateson, Satir, Haley, Weakland, Jackson,
Fisch, others
Legitimized family therapy
Communication approaches
Strategic Family Therapy
Brief Treatment Program
Golden Years (‘70-85)
Centers
“Masters”
Separation
Psychodynamic
Bowen
Boszormenyi-Nagy
Ackerman
Experiential/Existential
Whitaker (atheoretical)
Kempler (Gestalt)
Satir (humanistic) (warmest,
“feelingest”)
Structural School
Salvador Minuchin
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Male juvenile delinquents
inner city, low income, ghetto
Structural family therapy
Strategic
Jay Haley
Milan Group
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Milan Italy
Strategic approach, with a twist
Palazzoli, Boscolo, others
Additional Schools
Communications

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MRI
Satir
Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral
Post Golden Years (1985 - ?)
Critiques
Social Constructionism
Integration
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Pluralism
Theoretical Integration
Technical/Systematic Eclecticism
Contemporary Themes
Cultural sensitivity

Including spirituality and religion
PTSD in all forms
Managed care
Evidence-based practice
Others
Sociology of Psychology
Fragmented ideas
Coming together of ideas
Unique Coherent Theory
Separation and Differentiation
Absorption
Multidisciplinary
Anthropology
Counseling
Demography
Economics
Education
History
Home Economics
Human Development
Law
Psychoanalysis
Psychology
Public Health
Religion
Social Work
Sociology