Literature Review on Ackerman’s Foundational Approach When the need of family therapy emerged in the late forties, the name of Ackerman came along with the introduction, for the first time, of the foundational approach and the use of a psychoanalytic therapy in a group setting. Today, Ackerman is known for being one of the pioneers of family therapy. Although he started as a psychoanalytic therapist, he saw early in his career, a link between the psychosocial development of individuals and the development of families as a whole unit. As a result, he started applying the classical psychoanalytic theory to a family setting (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013). Ackerman strongly believed that families should be considered as communities within bigger ones. Therefore, he focused his energy on trying to understand how the dynamic of the family as far as its members’ personalities and emotions can impact the familial unit, as a whole. In the forties, Ackerman started to officially see entire families during therapy sessions (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013). According to Ackerman (1967), “family diagnosis and treatment began with the need to join (or rejoin) child with mother, child with father, mother with father, and beyond that, the need to better understand the interaction of family pairs within the family as a living whole.” The need to connect people to each other was what started Ackerman to search more about people’s individual goals and desires. In the sixties, when women started working and becoming more independent, Ackerman pointed out that this kind of societal change would also modify the organizational pattern of the family (Ackerman, 1956). In his theory, he followed three basic principles of diagnosis that explained the... ... middle of paper ... ...dividuals personal needs and explored to what extend they influence the family. He noticed that because people have different needs at different times in their life, it can be difficult to adapt to these changing without modifying the dynamics of the family. Ultimately, Ackerman’s approach helps people go through their own personal growth and understand other members’ personal change as well. After the decline of the psychoanalytic theory, The Ackerman Institute started using different methods and theories to approach family problems. However, the key idea behind the foundational approach is still very popular and is ultimately the goal of every therapist. Regardless of the theory used, family therapists try to always promote harmony and growth for all members in the family as well as the development of the family unit altogether.
For Bowen, the family is the unit of observation and the emphasis is put on emotional forces that are common to all families, this helps to reduce the significance of which family member is causing the problem. Bowens approach to change is understood within the context of striving to understand life’s forces, the very principal that gives coherence to Bowens approach to therapy. (Friedman, 1991). When attempting to achieve change within a client the source of the issue is less important, but rather trying to locate the systematic forces within a family as well as those that are transmitted from generation...
Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson
The conventional view of family therapy is a narrow one. According to this view, therapy treats an entire group - at least father, mother, and child - not just an individual patient. In the therapeutic situation, these family members present a major component of their everyday life.
Among the many avenues of intervention available to a caregiver’s disposal is the Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS), which was popularized by Richard C. Schwartz in 1995 . The premise of IFS Therapy is every person’s has internal entities, which are more than thoughts or feelings, but rather distinct personalities full of emotion and desire. Furthermore, trauma does not create these parts of the psyche but rather forces some entities from valuable functions, (such as acceptance, clarity and compassion) to extreme or protective roles, which causes the individual to lose their true self. Over all, the goal of IFS is not to eliminate these entities, but rather accept them and talk them back into their rightful role—inner leadership. All in all, IFS is a valuable resource for intervention because IFS allows a care seeker to address their true emotion or belief that is causing the conflict and at the same time, it allows the caregiver to remain self-aware as they
The workplace became masculinized, and the home feminized. By the separation of the masculine and feminine spheres that had been promoted, men and women now lived in separate worlds. By the turn of the twentieth century, men realized that their exclusion from the domestic sphere was, in fact, harmful to them: It left men “unable to experience the love, nurture and repose that the home supposedly represented” (Kimmel 158). Men were also worried at the “feminization” that potentially threatened their sons: men feared that women, who had the main responsibility for the upbringing of the children, would make the sons into
Family structure and stability have constantly evolved and been researched in aspects of sociology. Following World War II, the family ideology in the 1950’s was brought to the attention of Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales (1955) whom demonstrated how transitioning from an agricultural society to that of an industrialization one played an important role in altering family life and structure. Parsons and Bales further expressed how gender role specialization was vital in the continuous of family solidarity. The “instrumental” male father role as the leader of the family responsible for providing the income and support as the “expressive” role which is that of the female mother delivers her contribution to the family through house work and nurture
Since the 20th century, researchers have sought out solutions to help assist families and the individual components that make up family systems overcome the challenges and schisms that can inhibit individuation and stability. Two theoretical perspectives, the family-systems theory and the family-development theory, were conceived to gain as Balswick & Balswick (2014) noted, gain “a wide-angle view of family life” (p. 22). Though these two theories have merit, one I found to be more advantageous in gaining a better understanding of the family as an actively metastasizing organism, which needs to be approached more adaptively.
Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, two of the leading figures in sociology, may be considered the founding fathers for the ideas of the “modern family” and the “male-breadwinner family.” Collectively, their work has influenced how Americans analyze families and has sparked new ideas regarding the American family from sociologists such as Stephanie Coontz and Arlie Hochschild. However, when studying the American family, Parsons and Bales fail to understand that the “ideal” family may not be so ideal for everyone. They neglect to consider societal influences and economic changes when discussing patriarchal social norms as the most optimal family structure. Their description of the male-breadwinner family consists of the father being the “instrumental leader” within the home, providing economically for his family based on his occupational earnings. Meanwhile, the mother is considered the manager of the household, providing for her husband and children physically, emotionally, and mentally.
In the industrial age before World War II, when individual psychotherapy was born and thrived, human beings were essentially seen as machines, with broken parts—including the mind—that could be repaired; after World War II, the dawning information technology age brought a paradigm shift in the view of human life from mechanical to relational, and communication and systems theories provided family therapy with increased validity and prominence. (White, 2009, pp. 200-201). The modern family systems theories that grew out of this paradigm viewed families narrowly as functional or dysfunctional according to the delineation of each theory. Today, postmodern theory suggests that no absolute truth governs individuals or families; instead, people are
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
As century pass by generation also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men was the breadwinner. during this century those perspective have changed argued Stephanie Coontz the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believe women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality. Robert Kuttner, the author of “The Politics of Family” also believe that women should not be only the caretaker but whatever they want as a career. Robert Kuttner 's text does support Stephanie Coontz’ arguments about the issues related to traditional
According to Richard Charles (2001) “the effectiveness of family systems theory rests not much on empirical research but on clinical reports of positive treatment outcomes, the personal benefits experienced by the families that underwent this kind of treatment, and the elegance of Bowen’s theory” (p. 279). Bowen’s family systems theory views the family as an emotional unit and is a theory of human behavior. Systems thinking are used to describe the complex interactions in the unit. However, the client’s ability to differentiate himself/herself from the family of origin is the basis for Bowen’s family systems theory. In addition, the primary focus for growth within the emotional system is differentiation of self. Differentiation of self will be explored as well as how it relates to a church congregation.
Structured Family Therapy (SFT) refers the mere undesignated rules that structure how a family interacts with one another (Walsh, 2010). The family unit is composed of systems or parts, and the parts must be unified to compile a whole unit to create homeostasis (Broderick, 1993). SFT therapy is warranted when dysfunction enters the family unit, and creates a deficiency of adaption by the individual which disrupts the family structure (Boyle, 2000). The family structure is composed of major components such as: subsystems, executive authority, boundaries, rules, roles, alliances, triangles, flexibility, and communication (Walsh,
Moreover, the foundational approach to structural family therapy are that families’ are views as psychosocial systems, attached within social systems, which operate in a transactional patters. The transaction patterns are how, when and whom to relate, and reinforce systems. As a result each family duty are carried ou...
Banner, J. (1986). Virginia Satir's family therapy model. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 42(4), 480-494.