systemagazin

Online-Journal für systemische Entwicklungen

Family Process 1971

Heft 1

Reiss, David (1971): Varieties of Consensual Experience I. A Theory for Relating Family Interaction to Individual Thinking. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 1–28. 

Abstract: This report is one in a continuing series concerning the relationship of family interaction and individual thinking (24, 25, 26, 27). On the basis of previous experiments in this series, we have begun to elaborate a theory concerning the family’s shared, consensual experience of its environment. This paper will outline the theory and demonstrate how it can generate a set of predictive hypotheses. The theory of consensua experience has been developed to explain ways in which individuals employ their cognitive and perceptual resources in intimate relationships with others and to account for the ways in which these intimate relationships alter and mold cognition and perception.

Reiss, David (1971): Varieties of Consensual Experience II. Dimensions of a Family’s Experience of Its Environment. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 28–35. 

Abstract: In the previous paper (8), we outlined a theory for relating family interaction to perception and thinking in its individual members. The central notion, around which the theory was constructed, is that families developed shared contructs of their immediate environment and the family’s place in it. For example, the environment could be perceived as intriguing or hostile, and the family could feel itself potentially the master or victim of environmental forces. We hypothesized that a full range or variety of such subjective constructions could be specified or described by three independent dimensions of family experience. Although the dimensions refer to qualitative differences between families in subjective experience, they are named for the way they manifest themselves objectively in a family problem-solving situation: Problem-Solving Effectiveness, Coordination, and Penchant for Closure. Our hypothesis states that we can simplify the description of a great variety of shared constructions by using only three basic dimensions. For example, we described a consensus-sensitive variety whose family members share a perception of the environment as hostile and of their role as mutually protective. They develop rigid, over-simplified, and shared problem solutions as a means of jointly filtering out the terror and uncertainty of their environment. This kind of subjective construction could be specified by three scores: low on Problem-Solving Effectiveness, high on Coordination and high on Penchant for Closure.

Erlich-Amitai, Herbert S., Donald A. Bloch & C. Glenn Cambor (1971): Two Families: The Origins of a Therapeutic Crisis. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 37–52. 

Abstract: The treatment by individual and family therapy of a hospitalized young woman is presented as it reflects the historical and current family dynamics of the patient and her individual psychotherapist. The contribution of these factors to a therapeutic crisis is discussed.

Sojit, Cloë M. (1971): The Double Bind Hypothesis and the Parents of Schizophrenics. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 53–74. 

Abstract: This paper is a report of an investigation in which the interaction of parents of schizophrenics, in response to a double bind situation, was compared with that of parents of delinquents, ulcerative colitis patients, and controls. Differences in the parental transactions that are related to the offsprings’ pathology are reported. The parents of schizophrenics were also exposed to a non-double-binding situation and significant differences in their interaction are described. The results support the double bind hypothesis as a theory of the current family situation of the schizophrenic.

Barnett, Joseph (1971): Narcissism and Dependency in the Obsessional-Hysteric Marriage. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 75–83. 

Abstract: Marriages in which one partner is an obsessional neurotic and the other an hysteric lead to certain patterns of difficulty and conflict that are functions both of the character structure of each and of their interaction. The central dynamic task of marriage is the development and integration of constructive and viable patterns of intimacy. Both the obsessional and the hysteric have serious problems with intimacy and introduce into the marriage distortions and limitations of experience which restrict or even bar intimacy. This paper will examine some of the interpersonal and transactional dynamics considered especially important in such relationships.

Hall, Juanita & Kathleen Taylor (1971): The Emergence of Eric: Co-Therapy in the Treatment of a Family with a Disabled Child. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 85–96. 

Abstract: This paper focuses on the problem of socialization of the disabled child within his family. For the family of the disabled child, socialization is doubly challenging; the family must teach its child not only how to be human, but also how to be disabled in the larger society. Often families of disabled children need help in enhancing their child’s participation in family life – a critical aspect of socialization. One highly effective means of assisting families in this task is the use of family therapy. A case study is included to illustrate the use of family interviewing with a congenitally blind adolescent boy. Two therapists – a rehabilitation counselor (who is blind) from a state agency serving blind childrena and a social worker from a child guidance agencyb- collaborated in working with the family, which included a mother, father, their congenitally blind thirteen-year-old boy, and his two sighted brothers. The authors conclude that the child’s family is the most potentially powerful resource for the successful habilitation of the disabled child into larger society and postulate family treatment as an effective means of attaining this end.

Evans, Harvey A., Leopoldo Chagoya & Vivian Rakoff (1971): Decision-Making as to the Choice of Family Therapy in an Adolescent In-Patient Setting. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 97–110. 

Abstract: One hundred adolescent cases admitted to an in-patient unit were studied to determine how often conjoint family therapy was used. Although the explicit policy of the ward was to use this form of treatment in all cases, in fact only fifty per cent were so treated. This paper reviews the possible explanations for this.

Bodin, Arthur M. (1971): A Review of Family Therapy, Training, and Study in the San Francisco Bay Area. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 111–121. 

Abstract: Family therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area is widely accepted and is available from a broad spectrum of agencies, institutions, and private practitioners. Training programs in family therapy have proliferated both in centers focusing on family therapy and in general psychotherapy programs since the Mental Research Institute began training family therapists in 1959. Follow-up questionnaires analyzed from a sub-sample drawn from more than eight hundred professionals who have studied family therapy at MRI showed widespread acceptance of former family therapy trainees in an increasingly broad range of roles. Because family therapy has so deeply permeated the mental health programs and institutions of the area, the list that follows represents only a portion of the local family therapy activity. The list was compiled on four bases: 1) responses to an invitation to submit program descriptions that was circulated to all members of the Association of Family Therapists, 2) program brochures the author had previously collected, 3) listings in the Directory of Social Agencies and Services compiled and published by the Social Planning Council of Santa Clara County, and 4) personally invited descriptions from program directors known to the author but not detailed in the foregoing three sources. Listings from the third source, being briefer than the others, are grouped together alphabetically as items 11-18.

Glenn, Michael L. (1971): Review – Interpretation: Theory and Practice, Charles Singleton, Editor. John Hopkins, Baltimore 1969. In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 123–132. 

Abstracts Of Literature.  (1971): In: Family Process, 10 (1), S. 135–139. 


Heft 2

Nathan Ward Ackerman, June 12, 1971.  (1971): In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. i–i. 

Abstract: The news of Nathan Ackerman’s death came this morning; thus suddenly departed the man who, with Don Jackson, co-founded this Journal. For some years he had lived with the Angel quietly waiting at his elbow; they had not agreed on the propitious moment. Ackerman had little use for sentimentality; he would have been the first to agree he could be difficult to live with. He was occasionally prideful and sometimes unduly expansive. Often he took a devilish delight in tweaking obsessional tails. For all of this he was a great man, in the flawed, human way all men are truly great. He could know himself, honestly and humorously; he had a sense of seriousness and missionand would not lose sight of these or let go of them in adverse circumstances. He taught therapeutic courage and exemplified itnor did he do so vain gloriously, but rather with the sure trouble instinct of the Healer who does not flinch from the painful necessities of his work. Black Elk, the Sioux Holy Man, speaking of the murdered chieftain Crazy Horse says, „It does not matter where his body lies, for it is grass; but where his spirit is, it will be good to be.“ So too with Nathan Ackerman.

New Editorial Board Member: Salvador Minuchin.  (1971): In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 141–141. 

Ackerman, Nathan W. (1971): The Growing Edge of Family Therapy. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 143–156. 

Abstract: The term, family therapy, refers to a systematic method of psychotherapeutic intervention on the multiple, interlocking, emotional disorders of a family group. Family therapy, thus defined, is new, whereas family healing in nature is old, probably as old as the human family itself. In my view, family healing encompasses a broad range of spontaneous self-healing processes in family life. To illustrate, there is a significant restitutive, regenerative potential in such events as family gatherings, religious observances, rituals of confession and atonement, feasts, festivals, music and dance, initiation ceremonies, weddings, births, deaths, and rituals of mourning. The essence of healing is revitalization in an experience of human closeness, a triumph of life over death, of pleasure over pain, a reaffirmation and renewal of the exhilarating sense of being alive and well. There is, in fact, sound reason for the prominence of eating, drinking, and touching in the healing experience. A major responsibility of family therapy, therefore, is the mobilization and enhancement of these natural, self-healing functions.

Constantine, Larry L. & Joan M. Constantine (1971): Group and Multilateral Marriage: Definitional Notes, Glossary, and Annotated Bibliography. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 157–176. 

Abstract: The purpose of this note is to define the phenomenon under current study in the Multilateral Relations Study Project and differentiate it from certain other related but different sociological phenomena. Confusion in the area of alternative family structures is all but universal, even among professionals and researchers. While definitions that are overly rigid may reduce the value of study, most research and journalism in this area has been characterized by serious imprecision that has reduced rather than added to understanding.

Schatzman, Morton (1971): Paranoia or Persecution: The Case of Schreber. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 177–207. 

Abstract: Many psychoanalysts base their understanding of paranoia upon Freud’s analysis of Schreber. Freud thought Schreber became paranoid as a ‘defense’ against homosexual love. Freud, and those who analyzed Schreber after him, neglected an important source of data – the writings of Schreber’s father about child-rearing. The father had been an eminent German pedagogue. I show some striking similarities between the father’s methods of rearing children and some of the son’s strange experiences for which he was considered paranoid.I infer from reading the father’s writings that he persecuted Schreber. Schreber did not imagine he was persecuted; he was persecuted. I propose a transactional theory of paranoia to explain Schreber’s experiences. I link his experiences with his father’s behavior. I part company here with all previous analyses of Schreber’s paranoia. If my theory also explains other cases of paranoia, its effects could, and should be widespread.

Will, Otto Allen (1971): Commentary on Morton Schatzman „Paranoia or Persecution: The Case of Schreber“. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 207–210. 

Abstract: This article by Dr. Morton Schatzman on “The Case of Schreber” is, in my opinion, an illuminating and valuable contribution to furthering our knowledge of those patterns of behavior called paranoid. Psychiatric theories are derived from the following: a) accounts of their experiences as told by the patients themselves; b) inferences about the past drawn from such accounts and from observation of the developing interpersonal relationship of patient and therapist; c) reports relevant to the patient’s life given by othersverbally or in writing; d) direct observation of the patient’s behavior in situations such as the hospital milieu and the family; e) direct observation of human developmentlinear studies carried on over years of time; and, f) studies of behavioral modification and chemical-physiological structures possibly related to the above.

Ackerman, Nathan W. (1971): Commentary on Morton Schatzman „Paranoia or Persecution: The Case of Schreber“. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 210–212. 

Abstract: Family Process is indeed fortunate in being able to publish Dr. Schatzman’s paper on the Schreber case. This is a contribution of critical importance for psychopathological theory in general, for paranoia in particular. Both Schatzman and Niederland, an earlier contributor, are to be commended on the discovery and illumination of a new source of information on the family background of one of Freud’s most celebrated studies, the Schreber case. Schatzman’s report is a remarkable document. From it we derive a profound lesson, the indispensability of examining disturbed behavior from outside-inward as well as from inside-outward; it is important also to balance direct observational data against historical information. The traditions of history-taking in psychiatry are deeply embedded; yet such histories obtained in the setting of a one-to-one interview are sometimes strangely misleading. The intra-psychic patterning of experience, as exemplified in psychoanalytic therapy must be matched against reliable data deriving from the patient’s group experience. The several levels of information are complementary; each acts as a check against the other.

Sander, Fred M. (1971): T. S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion-‘Schizophrenia’ Reconsidered. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 213–228. 

Abstract: T. S. Eliot’s play, The Family Reunion (4), can be interpreted as a representation of a ‘schizophrenic’ and his family. As such it illustrates some of the clinical insights of both individual psychiatry and family psychiatry. This paper will discuss the play from a clinical vantage point and conclude with a re-consideration of the concept of schizophrenia.

O’connor, William A. & James Stachowiak (1971): Patterns of Interaction in Families with Low Adjusted, High Adjusted, and Mentally Retarded Members. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 229–241. 

Abstract: Family interactions were compared in three groups: families with a low adjusted child prior to formal clinic contact (LA), with a high adjusted child (HA), and with a retarded child (RM). Nine measures were utilized, described as: adaptation, stability, productivity, specificity, overt power, conflict, cohesion, and emotionality. Data suggested a failure of cohesion in the LA group, but many clinic-family stereotypes were supported. HA families showed high cohesion, but also high conflict. RM families showed cohesion, but many ‘auxiliary’ control features, such as assigning ‘youngest sib’ role to the handicapped child.

Winer, Lilian R. (1971): The Qualified Pronoun Count as a Measure of Change in Family Psychotherapy. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 243–247. 

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the original Multiple Family Psychotherapy group at Georgetown University, Department of Psychiatry. The author, a clinician, used the technique of content analysis of recorded interviews and developed a ‘change ratio’ which is called the ‘qualified pronoun count.’ Although ‘therapeutic improvement’ is not the main goal of the treatment strategy under research here, ordinarily anyone that exhibits the kind of change in differentiation from ‘family ego mass’ (1) reflected in this study, also experiences diminution or remission of symptoms. Preliminary findings indicate this new system of observing change is useful in determining variations in differentiation, and that these families did change.

Horner, Althea J. (1971): Correspondence on Robert Ryder (1970): „A Topography of Early Marriage“. In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 249–251. 

Musto, David F. (1971): Review – Philip J. Greven, Jr. (1970): Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Massachusetts, Ithaca (Cornell University Press); John Demos (1970) A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony. New York (Oxford University Press). In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 255–256. 

Langley, Donald G. (1971): Review – Alfred A. Messer (1970) The Individual in His Family: An Adaptational Study (Charles C Thomas). In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 256–257. 

Kennedy, John G. (1971): Review – Marvin K. Opler (1967): Culture and Social Psychiatry.  New York (Atherton Press). In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 257–258. 

Rabkin, Richard (1971): Review – Nathan W. Ackerman (Ed.)(1970): Family Process. New York (Basic Books). In: Family Process, 10 (2), S. 258–258. 


Heft 3

Auerswald, Edgar H. (1971): Families, Change, and the Ecological Perspective. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 263–280. 

Abstract: This paper is an attempt at a kind of momentary spot-check on the state of families and of family therapy in the U.S. from the vantage point provided by the epistemological base of ecology. Since one of the keynotes of ecological thought is concern with the context in which a phenomenon occurs, that is, broadening the field of inquiry first before narrowing the field by looking into the problem “in depth,” I shall follow that sequence.

Welldon, Ronald M. C. (1971): The „Shadow-of-Death“ and Its Implications in Four Families, Each with a Hospitalized Schizophrenic Member. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 281–302. 

Abstract: This paper summarizes the salient points from tape recordings of conjoint sessions with four families, each with a hospitalized schizophrenic member carrying a poor prognosis. As the sessions progressed, a profound and overwhelming sense of frustration, foreboding, doom and despair emerged, as if the family were attempting to preserve what seemed destined to die. Each family as a whole was involved in what can best be described as a vicious circle of displaced and distorted mourning for a dead family member. This had deep and unresolved emotional significance for one or other parent. This same parent was also more obviously involved with the schizophrenic child, whose own symbolic family role included both being protected from anything in life carrying the possibility of death and distracting others from the source of this ‘shadow-of-death.’

Tescher, Barbara (1971): A Nurse, A Family, and The Velveteen Rabbit. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 303–310. 

Abstract: „Real isn’t how you are made,“ said the Skin Horse. „It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become REAL.“ “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. „Sometimes,“ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. „When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.“ Because the Skin Horse is wise, and because the Velveteen Rabbit understands, I have chosen them to help me express some ideas and feelings about a first experience in family therapy. The original intent of the paper, an exploration of the process of termination, was, and is, impossible to realize. This process has to do with beginning, not ending. We, this family and I, are not „finishing,“ „terminating,“ or otherwise symbolically dying. We are in process of becoming. The relationship, as it has been and is at this moment, takes its meaning from the here and now existence of an immediate life situation. The members of the family have become increasingly aware of their individual potentials and are increasingly able to behave in a decisive, self-actualizing manner. A simple example from a recent session with the family may help clarify my meaning.

Sager, Clifford J., Helen S. Kaplan, Ralph H. Gundlach, Malvina Kremer, Rosa Lenz & Jack R. Royce (1971): The Marriage Contract. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 311–326. 

Abstract: This article is intended to serve as an introduction to the concept of the marriage contract, which has proved to be a useful clinical tool for clarification and treatment of troubled marriages. Transactional as well as intrapsychic factors are important aspects of marital dynamics. The contract concept employs both these behavioral parameters and facilitates therapeutic intervention at both levels.

Van der Veen, Ferdinand & Arthur L. Novak (1971): Perceived Parental Attitudes and Family Concepts of Disturbed Adolescents, Normal Siblings and Normal Controls. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 327–343. 

Abstract: This study tested the hypotheses that disturbed adolescents perceive lower parental attitudes (positive regard, empathic understanding, genuineness and unconditional regard) than are perceived by their normal siblings and normal controls; that normal siblings do not differ from normal controls on these variables; that levels of perceived attitudes are positively related to family concept measures of adjustment and satisfaction; and that attitudes perceived in one parent are positively associated with those perceived in the other. The hypotheses were substantially confirmed. In contrast to both normal groups, the disturbed adolescents failed to show positive relationships between maternal attitudes and the family concept measures and between perceived paternal and maternal attitudes.

Friedman, Rabbi Edwin H. (1971): The Birthday Party: An Experiment in Obtaining Change in One’s Own Extended Family. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 345–359. 

Abstract: The author describes a venture in providing disequilibrating information and experience to his extended family with a view to inducing change in stable patterns of interaction. The philosophy and method derives from the teachings of Murray Bowen.

Rabkin, Richard (1971): Review – Ira Glick, M.D. and Jay Haley (Ed.)(1971): Family Therapy and Research, An Annotated Bibliography of Articles and Books Published 1950-1970. New York (Grune and Stratton). In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 361–361. 

Abstract: “This bibliography … attempts to include all that has been written on family therapy as well as published family research studies relevant to the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. The many papers and books on the family in the area of sociology and anthropology have been selected…. Almost any paper on therapy that seems to have a family orientation is included. However, the therapy of family members treated individually or in group therapy or the therapy of married couples treated separately is not completely covered, even when articles on the subject mention the family in passing. Papers on family research are included whenever they deal with family interaction … Studies of individuals in families or research based upon records, self-report, and individual testing are included only if they deal with differences between types of families within a family orientation. For example, statistical studies of the frequency of divorce in America are not included, but an article giving statistics on frequency of divorce in families containing a schizophrenic member would be listed. … The references are arranged by subject and are followed by an author index. The subject arrangement was designed to meet the needs of readers with diverse interests.” (From the Preface)

Rabkin, Richard (1971): Changing Families. In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 361–361. 

Abstract: Readers of Family Process will be happy to learn that Jay Haley, the former editor of this journal, has collected 23 articles, representative of the wide range of approaches called family therapy, that focus on technique, and which, when arranged in chronological order, demonstrate to the reader how ideas evolved in this field over the last decade. Some of the papers are published for the first time, and some are from journals that might not ordinarily be seen by all family therapists. This is a very well chosen group of papers. Most of them were the “big ones” when they first appeared and today are the ones to which students or beginners should be referred. The collection has the odd effect of purporting to be about the past but the feeling it leaves is very contemporary, extending into the future. Haley has three contributions, two of them essentially new. Lynn Hoffman’s previously unpublished piece discussing deviation-amplifying processes in natural groups has enormous integrating power and reveals her theory-building strengths. Ross Speck and Carolyn Attneave discuss the techniques and processes of social network intervention and leave no doubt as to the extent of change in technique and practice. Haley’s pieces, too, emphasize the difference between family therapy and ordinary psychiatric theory and practice. The combined effect is to suggest that the revolution is coming; the gauntlet has been thrown down. No serious student in the field can afford to miss this volume.

Pearson, Geoffrey (1971): Review – Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (1970): The Case History Method in the Study of Family Process, Vol. VII, Report No. 76 (March, 1970). In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 361–362. 

Ellison, Katherine W. (1971): Review – Hyman Rodman (1970): Teaching about Families: Textbook Evaluations and Recommendations for Secondary Schools. Cambridge, Mass. (H. A. Doyle). In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 362–362. 

Abstracts.  (1971): In: Family Process, 10 (3), S. 365–372. 


Heft 4

Napier, Augustus Y. (1971): The Marriage of Families: Cross-Generational Complementarity. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 373–395. 

Abstract: Marriage is often characterized as a beginning, a fresh start. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of two young ‘normal’ couples and the family of origin of each partner. An attempt is made to examine the ’emergent’ marriage in the context of its familial origins with special emphasis on cross-generational complementarily.

Sluzki, Carlos E. & Eliseo Verón (1971): The Double Bind as a Universal Pathogenic Situation. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 397–410. 

Abstract: In this report we have tried to propose specific models for the genesis of three types of neurosis (i.e., hysteric, phobic, and obsessive-compulsive). We believe that this approach, based on a conceptual reconstruction of the specific learning contexts and experiences of an individual, is applicable to the study of the other functional disturbances as well. A central position is assigned in this to the ubiquity of double-bind phenomena which are assumed to be of greater importance than previously believed.

Stierlin, Helm, L. David Levi & Robert J. Savard (1971): Parental Perceptions of Separating Children. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 411–427. 

Abstract: Newer models of familial interaction emphasize the importance of parental perceptions of the child as determinants for his self-image and interpersonal functioning. This paper examines this issue in detail as it bears on the developmental phase of separation and individuation in adolescence.

Scheflen, Albert E. (1971): Living Space in an Urban Ghetto. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 429–450. 

Abstract: In this paper I will outline the idea of human territoriality and then describe some territorial arrangements and behaviors in the households we have studied. The environment of people is prestructured socially and temporally. For two years our research team has been studying the prestructured living spaces and the territorial behavior of urban people in a central Bronx ghetto. We have conducted interviews in about 1800 households, photographically surveyed space layouts in 35, and videotaped space usage and territorial behavior intensively in six. In the main, our data is about Puerto Ricans and Afro-Americans; we have a little data about Italian-Americans, but the Jewish and old British American families have moved out of the East Tremont area.

Postner, Roslyn Spector, Herta A. Guttman, John J. Sigal, Nathan B. Epstein & Vivian M. Rakoff (1971): Process and Outcome in Conjoint Family Therapy. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 451–473. 

Abstract: Forty-nine coded twenty-minute transcript segments sampled at six-week intervals from the conjoint treatment of eleven families were examined. Coding procedures tapped both participation and affective expression (Emergency, Welfare, and Neutral) of family members and the quantity, direction, and quality of therapists’ interventions. The families were assigned to two outcome groups on the basis of change scores in four areas (Overall; Affective Involvement; Affective Communication and Affective Expression) derived from the independent ratings of pre and post-therapy interviews by three judges (73 percent agreement). A two-way analysis of variance applied to the Good and Poor Outcome group coding data indicated an increase in Welfare feelings, a sharp decrease in Neutral speech paralleled by an initial rise then leveling off of Emergency. For any given therapist-family unit, therapist’s output remained within a unique range, the level of which rose gradually only in the Good Outcome group. Therapists focused increasingly on only one family member, usually a parent, the parent initially most talkative. A Good Outcome resulted when the father was initially the more vocal parent, a Poor Outcome when mother outtalked father. The Drive-Interpretation ratio decreased as therapy progressed. The initial level of this ratio was positively related to outcome and inversely to drop-out rate.

Gorad, Stephen L. (1971): Communicational Styles and Interaction of Alcoholics and Their Wives. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 475–489. 

Abstract: The following hypotheses, derived from an interpersonal-interactional theory of alcoholism were investigated: (1) The alcoholic uses a style of communication characterized by responsibility avoidance, when interacting with his wife; (2) The wife of the alcoholic uses a more direct, responsibility-accepting style of communication than her husband, when interacting with him; (3) The interaction between an alcoholic and his wife is marked by (a) an inability to function as a unit for mutual benefit, and (b) rigidity of complementarity and/or escalation of symmetry. These hypotheses were tested by placing twenty married couples with alcoholic husbands and twenty normal control couples in an interactional game-playing situation. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3a were confirmed. It was found that alcoholic couples use the escalation of symmetry pattern (hypothesis 3b). Additional findings on competition, dominance, and interactional rigidity are discussed.

Rabkin, Richard (1971): Review – Muriel Gardiner (Ed.)(1971): Wolf Man: His Memoirs with the Case of the Wolf Man by Sigmund Freud.  New York (Basic Books). In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 491–492. 

Namenek, Therese (1971): Review – Jacques Hochmann (1971): Pour Une Psychiatrie Communautaire. Paris (Editions du Seuil). In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 492–494. 

Caroff, Phyllis (1971): Review – Institute of Marital Studies (1971): The Marital Relationship as a Focus for Casework (Report of the Proceedings of a Conference). London (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations); Kathleen Bannister & Lily Pincus (1971): Shared Phantasy in Marital Problems: Therapy in a Four-Person Relationship. London (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations); Lorna Guthrie & Janet Mattinson (1971): Brief Casework with a Marital Problem. London (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations). In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 494–495. 

Glick, Ira (1971): Abstracts. In: Family Process, 10 (4), S. 501–504.

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