Family Therapy and the Alienation Syndrome*

This paper reviews the increasing separation of the contemporary family from the community in terms of the sociological concept of alienation. It proposes that there is compelling evidence that the isolation of the nuclear family exerts a pathological influence on the mental health of families and of individual family members; that family therapists have paid minimal attention to the isolation in their zeal to develop effective techniques for altering intra-familial processes; and that the family therapy movement has the potential for exerting a significant corrective impact on the social forces which further the isolation of contemporary families.