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Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but....
Review: I liked this book; I really did. It had alot of good points. I appreciated the way that the author took one case and carried it all the way through as an illustration of his points about how to best work with families. The question and answer sections after each vignette help the reader generalize what he is doing with he particular family. Whittaker points out the importance family therapists joining with the family, which means that the therapist has to build enough of a relationship with the family to really connect with them and have them believe he is truly present with them. He showws how important it is for a good therapist to shake the family up a bit and create some disequilibrium, because it is through the creation of anxiety that change takes place. He sees his work as a therapist as not only encouraging the growth of his clients, but also enhancing his own growth. This book will be most useful to a reader who has some background in working with families. The book takes the basic concepts that students will have already learned in a survey course and expands them, giving the reader greater insight into the particular way that one of the leaders in the field practices. In that sense it's really a fascinating book. I found that the book was too short. I wanted more detail, somehow. I found that it was repetitive in parts, and I disagreed with some of the things that Whittaker said about the nature of the family and the importance of marriage. Some of his beliefs about male/female relationships don't fit for me - they seem rather old fashioned. That, coupled with the fact that it will really only benefit a limited audience, is the reason I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 4.
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