The Family Crucible: The Intense Experience of Family Therapy

Family therapy, like almost everything within the field of psychology, has its deepest roots in the early principles laid out by Sigmund Freud, who is widely considered the founder of psychology. Augustus Y. Napier gives credit to Freud while also criticizing his work, explaining that Freud’s concept of the unconscious mind underlies much of Napier’s current practice. At the same time, however, Freud’s focus on the individual caused him to ignore the relationships in a patient’s life. Family therapy originated with Freudian psychoanalysis but moves toward newer approaches that put less emphasis on personal desires and more emphasis on The Interconnectedness of the Family.

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was “a wide conceptual and methodological gap that […] developed in the mental health professions, one with profound implications for mental health care” (38). While many psychologists and psychiatrists maintained their focus on the individual, others grew more interested in relationships and family patterns. Alongside this movement was a growth in other fields that looked to examine the interplay of different aspects of life, humanity, and the human experience, such as sociology, anthropology, and ecology.

In viewing the family as a closely linked and deeply complex system, Napier and Whitaker draw from ideas first articulated by the psychiatrist Murray Bowen, who created the family systems approach in the 1950s. This approach emphasizes the importance of examining and aiding the entire family unit, rather than just one person within it. As seen with the Brice family, many families begin the therapeutic process convinced that one member is the “problem,” while the rest remain innocent victims. By sifting through past and present relationship dynamics, therapy helps each family member discover their role in the issues that affect their lives.

The introduction of family therapy also saw the need to reorganize and rethink therapy as it involved more people and more complex discussions. Recovery within a family is different from recovery for an individual, and the goals of therapy will thus differ as well. In the present, family therapy has taken hold as an essential tool in a wide variety of fields, including psychology, social work, medicine, childcare work, education, and more. The family systems approach remains at the heart of the philosophy of family therapy as theories and research continue to develop.