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This book describes the treatment of families who have members with severe physical, mental, or behavioral disorders. The family therapist focuses on those processes in the family that produce symptoms in one of the members. How the members interact around the various disorders and how the interaction can be modified is detailed by 18 contributors in 12 chapters.
In the first chapter, on “Treating Schizophrenia in a Family Context,” Edward M. Waring traces the study of schizophrenic families, from Fromm-Reichmann's concept of the schizophrenogenic mother to Laing's observation that the schizophrenic's communication becomes understandable in the context of the family.
The most consistent of new findings is that parents of schizophrenics show more marital disharmony than those of controls. But research has not found a single family variable that is a necessary and sufficient cause of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, many clinicians find it useful to involve the families in some way.
On the theory that decreasing the hostility between the parents will lead to an improvement in the schizophrenic, Waring and Russell developed a special form of treatment, Cognitive Family Therapy, intended to facilitate the parents' intimacy by stimulating self-disclosure. The technique is unusual. After an initial interview with the whole family, only the parents are seen in the subsequent sessions. No communication is allowed between the couple during the sessions; each member of the dyad must talk only to the therapist. Any emotional display is discouraged. The author explains the rationale for this therapy and refers to papers presenting its course and effectiveness, but one wishes he were more specific about its effectiveness.
In the chapter on “Family Therapy with Hospitalized and Disabled Patients,” G. Pirooz Sholevar describes the contributions of family therapy to patients in psychiatric and general hospitals and to patients with physical disabilities. The stress produced in the family b