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Psychoanalysis in addition to being a theory of the mind, a research tool, and a therapeutic modality has implicitly always been a theory of the family. The interplay of instinctual visicitudes, ego development, and the family as experienced by the patient has been the data of psychoanalysis. Its methodology has necessarily emphasized intrapsychic forces and precluded the direct study of family behavior.
During the past 20 years, direct observation and treatment of the family unit has emerged. The family therapy literature is vast and includes at least five anthologies published within the past 2 years. Investigators include a wide range of theoretical orientations from psychoanalytically trained practitioners on one hand and ‘systems’ oriented therapists who see little reason to take intrapsychic data into account on the other.
This book is representative of the latter category and is, despite some interesting and helpful observations, seriously marred by its need to debunk insight-oriented psychotherapies. Since varying therapeutic modalities have emerged one may ask which method will treat which problem.
The book begins with a fairly inclusive though sketchy overview of recent developments in the family therapy field; the author implies that his approach is superior to other therapists due to its triadic, rather than dyadic, focus.
Zuk's major formulation is that family groups develop pathogenic relationships essentially over issues of power and control. They attempt conflict resolution by developing ‘go-between’ processes which are triadic in nature; in other words, it takes “three to tangle”! Take, for example, a marital conflict of the mother encouraging and moderating sexual or aggressive behavior between her child and her husband; the mother represents a pathogenic go-between. According to Zuk, the therapist's job in such situations is to gain control of the go-between process and with this therapeutic leverage “shift the balance of pathogenic-relating among fam