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Ibsen's Truth, Family Secrets, and Family Therapy
Author(s) -
GROLNICK LAWRENCE
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1983.00275.x
Subject(s) - secrecy , illusion , family therapy , perspective (graphical) , mythology , psychoanalysis , character (mathematics) , psychology , aesthetics , sociology , law , art , literature , psychotherapist , political science , visual arts , cognitive psychology , geometry , mathematics
In certain Ibsen plays a character (would‐be family therapist) enters during a crisis revolving around family secrets. Taking two such plays as models, this paper examines family processes and clinical issues surrounding secrets and myths. In Ghosts, Ibsen demonstrates the tragic foreclosure visited upon the Alvings' lives by a generation of secrecy. For contrast, in The Wild Duck the would‐be reformer Gregers brings out the truth, to expose and correct consequences of his father's past machinations. The biographical roots of Ibsen's obsession with truth and illusion are explored. Lastly, the notion that Ibsen and early family therapist were reformers is viewed in historical perspective.