Ordinary People: Family Therapy And The Jarrett Family

Ordinary People is a movie that chronicles the struggles of a “normal” family reamed by the death of their eldest child Bucky and the attempted suicide of their youngest, Calvin. The Jarrett’s are a middle class family in the suburbs of Chicago who, at least to outside appearances, have a fairly typical life, though we learn this is in fact not the case. Conrad has just returned from the hospital and seems to be experiencing not only depression but also PTSD. Conrad is the seemingly identified patient, even though the whole family is struggling in their own way, especially Beth. We start to see the background of the Jarrett family through Calvin’s therapy sessions with his new therapist, Dr. Berger.
Through these flashbacks we see Buck, the

According to the research done by Susan Johnson, “emotionally focused couples therapy (EFT), now recognized as one of the most researched and most effective approaches to changing distressed marital relationships” (Johnson, Hunsley, 1999). The effects on this therapy show that it continues to be steady over time for the relationship as well (Halchuk, Makinen, Johnson, 2010). This approach has a focus on the disclosure of feelings, something that seems difficult for the Jarrett family. Beth, in particular, seems to avoid most emotional contact with both her husband and son, especially when the conversation involves talking about how they feel about Bucky’s death. One perfect example of Beth avoiding her emotions over her son’s death is the story Calvin tells about her making him change his shirt for the funeral. She would rather worry about what he is wearing than the pain that her son’s death has caused. It is as though Beth sees emotions as almost weak and something that is not helpful in overcoming her son’s death. In fact, we see many times when both Beth and Calvin avoid having arguments, instead of saying how they feel. They seem to repress most emotions because they do not want to deal with their relationship on top of everything else that is going on, even though it would help them to express how they are