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Reflections During a Study on Family Therapy with Drug Addicts
Author(s) -
REICHELT SISSEL,
CHRISTENSEN BERNADETTE
Publication year - 1990
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.1545-5300.1990.00273.x
Subject(s) - family therapy , psychotherapist , flexibility (engineering) , psychology , categorization , subject (documents) , addiction , cybernetics , psychiatry , computer science , artificial intelligence , library science , statistics , mathematics
This article presents ideas and reflections emerging during a project on family therapy with drug abusers. Initially inspired by the writings of Stanton and Todd (26, 27) on the subject, the project developed into a recursive and self‐reflective process, characterized by increasing doubts about the usefulness of categorization of families, of pre‐planning therapy, and of the therapist as an “expert.” The limitations of approaches that emphasize the importance of understanding the family structure as the basis for changing it are discussed, particularly with respect to how they decrease therapist flexibility and may block the family's finding their own solution. Alternative approaches to practice and research are also discussed, bearing on ideas particularly formulated by theoreticians and practitioners inspired by second‐order cybernetics.