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Illness, Family Theory, and Family Therapy: I.Conceptual Issues
Author(s) -
WYNNE LYMAN C.,
SHIELDS CLEVELAND G.,
SIRKIN MARK I.
Publication year - 1992
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.1545-5300.1992.00003.x
Subject(s) - cognitive reframing , family therapy , biopsychosocial model , narrative , reductionism , psychotherapist , transactional analysis , psychology , coping (psychology) , context (archaeology) , sociology of health and illness , epistemology , health care , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , economics , biology , economic growth
This article examines and clarifies controversies about the concept of illness in the field of family therapy. We contend that illness, as traditionally understood in all cultures, is a relational, transactional concept that is highly congruent with core principles of present‐day family theories. Family therapists need not buy into a biotechnical, reductionistic reframing of illness as disease. Rather, it is more appropriate to conceptualize and work with illness as a narrative placed in a biopsychosocial context. Such a narrative includes how shared responsibility for coping and for finding solutions can take place, without becoming involved in disputes about causal models.