Family Therapy in Clinical Practice

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Summary: The family is seen as a unit vs. a collection of individuals
Review: Dr. Bowen begins by exploring the mother/child bond to understand human functioning. Soon fathers are seen as vital to this understanding, then the nuclear and extended family. Multi-generational patterns, cutoffs, sibling positions, and triangles are some of the family issues explored. Bowen shows how this broad family perspective inpacts family therapy, as well as understanding societal emotional process.

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Summary: Read this book if you know any people
Review: It's rare to find books that are both academically credible and accessible to the layperson. This book is the exception, and the content is truly life changing. It is unfortunate that most of the people who read this book are psychologists or psychiatrists who see it as "just another method" and go back to their simplistic "find the problem and fix it" techniques.

Reading this book has helped me understand myself, my family, my work environment, my social environment, and human culture.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a look--Bowen's definitely got something.
Review: This is a well organized, thoughtful book telling the origins and details of Bowen theory. I particularly like the many cases covered in this book. It appears that they got promising results in helping families with schizophrenic children. There is also a chapter where Dr. Bowen talks about his own efforts at differentiating within his family of origin. It's one thing to talk theory--another to apply it to yourself and then write about it. Fantastic.

There is something very compelling about Bowen's approach, and his insistence on being able to link it with scientific techniques. If you've given up on the more accepted "30 years and a couch" approaches, take a look at Bowen theory.

If you can't find the book here, try the website of the new publisher, "Roman & Littlefield".