Family Therapy Systems theoryfamily members are inter-dependent and a change in one will lead to a change in the others.

Systems are open or closedIn an open system there is communication, differences are respected and negotiated and change is understood. In a closed system there is no communication, differences are threatening, and change is not welcome. Here, everyone should be and feel the same. The family system is also either stable or unstable.

Forerunners: Freud--Psychopathology exists in the family but is intrapersonal, not interpersonal Sullivananxiety is reciprocal between mother and child. Fromm- Reichmannschizophrenogenic mother then, refrigerator mom. Ackerman called the founder of Family Therapy wrote about the family as a system as early as 1937. In the 1950s family therapy surfaces nationwide. Why? A typical case: The child with the problem is hospitalized, gets better, sent home, and gets worse again. The person with the problem is termed the identified patient. Pathology can be individual but affects whole family ->Or (in the old terms) a wifes frigidity is cured with therapy and then her husband becomes impotent. New guidelinesee the whole family and not just the person with the problem. Or a wife recovers from anorexia after which her husband got a duodenal ulcer. Or a woman gaining more self-confidence in therapy, after which her husband called to complain about her worsening condition. (He eventually committed suicide.) ->Or an alcoholic of 18 years is successfully treated to refrain from drinking, and his wife becomes depressed and his model son becomes delinquent. Two relevant quotes on the family:

Jung: "Parents project onto their children all their own unfulfilled dreams." Haley on family pathologycross generational coalition that is both repeated and usually denied. (also usually cross-sexual; mother to son, vv): In the worst famillies, there are alliances between a parent and a child, as opposed to healthy: child to child or parent to parent.

Anecdotenew staff at a mental hospital on visiting day cant tell the patients from the patients' relatives. (They all seem crazy.)

The double bind hypothesisconsistent incongruent communication can produce crazy reactions. (eg. Rob hugs mom, she tenses up and says to him: Dear, you must not be so easily embarrassed and afraid of your feelings.) Does this lead to schizophrenia? (Roberts mother) (IE> Lose-lose situations all the time)

Who started it? is an irrelevant question. This is merely the punctuation of the sequence of events. (eg. does he drink because she nags or does she nag because he drinks?) Punctuation= where you start and stop, in relaity family sytem is ongoing but its up CO where to punctuate.

Systems have rules and members play roles. Three rules in a really dysfunctional familydont talk, dont trust, dont feel. Non-summativitythe family system is more than the sum of their individual personalities. Equifinalitydifferent beginnings can have the same end. Multifinalitythe same beginning can lead to different endings. IE Divorce can be eq or mult. Therefore, dont bother to find out what or who started it. Calibrationthe fixed range of change that a system can tolerate. (thermostat.)

Communication can become so calibrated that eventually the mere raising of an eyebrow can trigger pain and rage in another family member. Schleflen and Bridwhistellthe ballet of family therapy patterned interactions recur on speeded-up videos of family session w/o sound. These patterns are repetitive and unvarying. (when you find the pattern, interrupt and change it.) Homeostasisthe family seeks a state of balance. The stability of a system is maintained by negative feedback mechanisms. (eg. expressed emotion: family reacts with criticism) Freud and Hans: Afraid of horses with mustaches and glasses. Dream about giraffes. Oedipal Complex. Through treatment, father and son got closer. Kids are usually scapegoated or symptom bearers in family systems. Can't leave anyone out in family therapy.

Systems are error-activatedwhen one family member breaks a rule, the others become agitated until he or she conforms or a new rule is established.

Rules can be explicit or implicit. In extreme pathology rules are rigid and covert.

When the schizophrenic begins to cariacature the rules, the family becomes angry or laughs. (See Haleys On the Art of Being Schizophrenic.) HaleyMeta-rules. These are about who makes the rules, and Haley says this is what most couples fight about. Another conceptquid pro quo. The bargain family members strike with each other. (this defines the rights and duties of the couple.) Marital schismfights that undermine the partners worth. Marital skewone person is crazy and the partner just goes along with it. John Gotman Book: "mathematics of divorce" Says schisms are the breakdown of marriages. He predicted divorces

Psuedomutualitythe familys attempt to fit in with each other, at the expense of everyones individuality. Triangulationa child caught in the family conflict and usually aligning with one parent. Differentiationthe son or daughter in the family becoming his or her own person and separate from the parents. Therefore, successful therapy must destroy the old dysfunctional balance, and restore a new and more functional balance. Symptoms in children often serve to de-focus the family from the more basic issuethe dysfunction in the marital relationship. (Little Hans) thus, the child becomes the scapegoat or the symptom-bearer. When scapegoating the child eases up, severe explosions between the parents often follow. Until the family system is fixed, the symptom can thus in different forms be transferred from one family member to another. (eg. siblings of the schizophrenic child often have their own pathology.) Three types of family therapy Communication ApproachSatir. Expression of feelings among family members when successfully translated will lead to family harmony. Structural ApproachMinuchin. Restore the husband wife bond and set limits around it to exclude the children from an overinvolvement with one parent. (The video we see) Strategic ApproachHaley. This gives the family tasks and prescribes the symptom to change the system. Have to be very directive in family therapy, Rogerian methods probably won't work, you'll end up entagled in the dysfunctional system. Have to be very to translate the families communication.