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Scripts and Legends in Families and Family Therapy
Author(s) -
BYNGHALL JOHN
Publication year - 1988
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.1545-5300.1988.00167.x
Subject(s) - scripting language , family therapy , mythology , set (abstract data type) , psychological intervention , psychology , field (mathematics) , genogram , social psychology , psychotherapist , computer science , literature , psychiatry , art , programming language , operating system , mathematics , pure mathematics
Protective family scripts prescribe interaction that the family believes is needed to avoid potentially dangerous scenarios. Certain family legends provide moral tales that illustrate these dangers and hence reinforce these scripts. Together they contribute to family mythology. In the absence of adequate research data about specific effects of particular interventions, the therapist has to rely on his or her own beliefs about what works to change unhelpful family beliefs and interaction patterns. This essay examines the interplay between the two belief systems by exploring one of the author's own family legends and then seeing how its injunctions have been played out in his family therapy practice, thereby illustrating how myths and protective practices may be set up within the field of family therapy and its training.