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Survival in Isolation *
Author(s) -
Hart Rebekah
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1986.tb01275.x
Subject(s) - parallels , isolation (microbiology) , project commissioning , family therapy , group psychotherapy , psychology , work (physics) , sociology , social psychology , publishing , political science , psychotherapist , engineering , biology , operations management , law , mechanical engineering , microbiology and biotechnology
A group of individuals with widely different work roles and experiences got together about a year ago ostensibly to study family therapy. It soon became clear that the group was meeting many varied needs only one of which was the study of family therapy itself. When the group began to prepare a paper on the influence of isolation on the families in family therapy, a number of surprising parallels between the isolated rural families and the study group were discovered. This paper explores some of these parallels in contact and emotional support; approval by others; balancing intimacy and distance; development of symptoms. The most surprising finding was that the functioning of the group was markedly shaped by the environment in which it lived and worked; in short, we had ‘discovered’ the importance of systemic influences on ourselves as well as on the families with whom we work. Within a systemic theoretical approach this paper also examines three major constraints imposed on both families and professionals alike by the larger environmental system: being too close; being geographically isolated; and being in a rural environment.