The Influence of Living in Two Places on Conjugal Relations: “Instrumental” Characteristic of Norm of Love in China

This research focuses on dual residences (living in two places) on Chinese married couples, a phenomenon with a unique Chinese social background, based on the analysis of 15 cases sampled in the form of interviews, exploring the influence of having dual residences on husband-wife relations and then further exploring its influence of the norm of love and how it works in China. There are three main conclusions. First, compulsory dual residence is closely connected to the rigorous systems of household registration and job allocation during the planned economy period. Voluntary dual residence is related to utilitarian values, including the pursuit of social status and income, against the background of the market economy. Second, at a time when to be working was the first and foremost goal for both men and women, compulsory dual residence was influenced by mainstream social norms that gave priority to work over relationships. Such recognition weakens the influence of dual residences on husband-wife relations. The influence of voluntarily having dual residences on husband-wife relations is mainly connected with how this situation comes to an end. Third, in China, the norm of love in coexistence with multiple values has not been shown to have a decisive influence no matter how the spouses were selected selection or how husband-wife relations are maintained.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Block, Joel D. To Marry Again ,
Lorimer, Anne with Feldman, Philip, Remarriage ,
Carter, Elizabeth A. & McGoldrick, Monica. The family life cycle .
Fried, Edrita, The courage to change ,
Haley, Jay. Leaving home: The therapy of disturbed young people .
Madanes, Cloé. Strategic family therapy .
Hess, Allen K., (Ed.), Psychotherapy supervision: Theory, research, practice .
Minuchin, Salvador and Fishman, Charles H. Family therapy techniques .
Schwartz, Gary and Merten, Don; with Behan, Fran and Rosenthal, Allyne. Love and Commitment ,
Singer, Laura J. Stages: The crises that shape your marriage .
Stahmann, Robert F., and Hiebert, William J. Premarital counseling .
Straus, Murray A., & Hotaling, Gerald T. (Eds.). The social causes of husband-wife violence .
Strean, Herbert S. The extramarital affair .
Tymchuk, Alexander J. Parent and family therapy: An integrative approach to family interventions .
Woody, Robert H. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of clinical assessment .     

Amplifying Deviations in Family Interactions: Guidelines For Trainees in Post‐Milan Family Therapy

Amplifying deviations in family interactions is a critical skill in family therapy, and one that can be implemented following the first reflecting team intervention. This paper will provide trainees with a series of practical guidelines for amplifying deviations, derived from an integration of several models of family therapy. Solution‐focused and narrative questions are employed systemically, with the aim of magnifying virtuous, rather than vicious cycles of interaction. A theoretical rationale for deviation amplifying and a brief case vignette will also be presented.     

Family of Origin Supervision in the Workplace: Impacts on Therapist and Team Functioning

The Adolescent and Family Unit at Redbank House carried out a trial of Bowen's Family of Origin Coaching that has prompted us to comment on the usefulness of this approach as a component of clinical supervision. This article will describe how this trial came about, the process adaptations required to make it possible and how some of the ethical dilemmas raised by this approach were addressed. Personal reflections from the team members will be shared, and our observations in terms of impact of this form of supervision on clinical functioning, team cohesion and service provision will then be discussed. In essence, we aim to provide an anecdotal account of our experience and ask the question, ‘Is supervision that focuses on the therapist's individual functioning as a product of their intergenerational patterns a valid use of resources in a clinical setting?’     

A "READER'S THEATER" INTERVENTION TO MANAGING GRIEF: POSTTHERAPY REFLECTIONS BY A FAMILY AND CLINICAL TEAM

The sudden and accidental death of a child can be one of the most devastating events in the life of a family. This paper describes one couple's reflections of their grief and mourning following the death of their adolescent son as well as the clinical team's reflections of therapy. The uniqueness of this paper is that it offers a "reader's theater" intervention that enabled further change to occur. The clinical team used a belief model, emphasizing that altering constraining beliefs is at the heart of healing from such tragedies as sudden death (Wright, Watson, & Bell, 1996). This approach is operationalized through therapeutic conversations between family members, clinician, and clinical team. Interventions such as reflecting teams, therapeutic letters, and "homework tasks" were used to modify or challenge constraining beliefs of both the family members and the clinical team members. However, the intent to co-author a paper with this couple provided the serendipity intervention of a "reader's theater" that further served to identify, affirm, and solidify facilitating beliefs.     

Integrating Family Therapy Training in a Clinical Psychology Course

Teaching family therapy to clinical psychology trainees is not common practice in Australian clinical psychology training programs. There is sparse discussion in the literature. Family therapy is an evidence based intervention that complements a diversity of established theories and psychotherapies and would complement the intervention skills of trainee clinical psychologists. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how family therapy training may be integrated into a postgraduate clinical psychology course. The literature on core family therapy knowledge, skills and training methods will form the backdrop to a review of specific family therapy training courses for clinical psychology trainees. This will then be mapped against a consideration of accreditation requirements of clinical psychology courses in Australia and suggestions made for integrating family therapy into their training curriculum. Anecdotal feedback from students provides an initial step toward evaluation.     

WOMEN AND CRIME: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes the determinants of female participation in criminal activities through the use of an economic model of crime. The model is tested empirically on 1970 state data on female arrests and the results are generally consistent with the theoretical predictions. The major findings are that the probability of arrest and the probability of conviction have significant deterrent effects on female property crime, the labor force participation rate of married women has no effect and the average number of preschool children in husband-wife families has a negative and significant effect. The decrease in the average number of preschool children per husband-wife family that took place between 1960 and 1970 is shown to have accounted for more than half of the increase in female property crime that occurred during that decade .     

Dance therapy and self psychology

In this paper I will introduce the basic concepts of dance therapy and show how dance therapy could be viewed self psychologically. A clinical example will be presented, discussed and critiqued utilizing self psychological concepts. A brief discussion will follow that appraises the potential of blending self psychology and dance therapy together. This is a speculative paper but it may provide a basis to further develop self psychology within dance therapy.     

FAMILY ASSESSMENT IN CHILD CUSTODY DISPUTES*

This paper has operationalized family systems theory to explicate the interfacing dynamics between family dissolution and child custody disputes. The authors suggest that clinical assessment and intervention in these matters which focus solely on individual and marital, or child dimensions, fail to recognize the powerful influences of systemic family process. A family assessment model, evolved from clinical work with over 200 court-referred custody cases, is described. The model involves a cross-sex therapy team with each member responsible for a specific family subsystem. The role of each therapist and the functioning of the team is outlined. Specific criteria for determining custody recommendations are identified based on patterns of family process and dissolution.     

Factors Influencing the Degree and Pattern of Parental Involvement in Play Therapy for Sexually Abused Children

Although much has been written about the role of therapists in children's recovery from child sexual abuse, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of nonoffending parents. This study investigated the work of a team of therapists who sometimes included such parents in therapy sessions with children. The study sought to understand what factors were influencing the degree and pattern of parental involvement and to understand what effect these patterns of parental involvement were having on the process and outcomes of therapy. The study successfully identified a range of factors influencing the patterns of parental involvement, but more research will be needed to understand the effect on outcomes.     

Family Therapy in a Biomedical Context

The role of family therapy has to be redefined in the wake of the reemergence of the medical model in psychiatry, which now encompasses biological, psychological, and social parameters. In this biopsychosocial model, the goal of biological therapy is to promote cognitive and affective regulation through the prescribing of neuroleptic and mood-stabilizing chemicals. The goal of individual psychological therapy is to teach individuals how to achieve intimate relationships and creative work productivity. The goal of social therapy, typified by family therapy, is to promote socialization, involving social belonging and obligation in terms of individual autonomy and freedom. One of the implications of allocating circumscribed objectives to the various therapies is that mental health professionals, even more in the future than in the past, will have to work together as collaborative team members.     

Treatment of psychogenic seizures in adolescents

This article will review the problem of psychogenic seizures in adolescents and the impact of family therapy and individual therapy on treatment. Why particular individuals are prone to psychogenic seizures, the relationship between psychogenic seizures and family dynamics, and unresolved individual issues will be covered. The article will address a selected case, with a specific clinical paradigm for treatment.     

Individual and couple tastes for children: Theoretical,methodological, and empirical issues

A comparison is made between two alternatives for explaining family size decisions: a psychological model based on the individual needs of the spouses and a social psychological model based on the husband-wife relationship. By use of higher order factors within the context of structural equation models, it is shown that the two approaches can be derived as special cases of a single, integrative framework. In this way, a theory is developed and tested which explicitly represents the family-size decision process as both an individual and joint experience of the spouses.     

Crisis management during "live" supervision: clinical and instructional matters

In this article, we illustrate two examples of "live" supervision with marriage and family therapy trainees whose clients presented in the therapy room in immediate crisis. The case examples, one a client with suicidal thoughts and the other a parent who had struck her child, demonstrate how the university-based therapy team managed the recursive clinical and supervision processes that unfolded during the sessions. We present the case examples from the perspective of both supervisees and supervisor, discussing how our different experiences of the supervision unfolded in real time. Case discussion and reflections later in the article illustrate the need for an open, transparent, dialogical process throughout supervision. A case is made for supervisory participants to create alternative formats in which multiple supervisory voices can be heard.     

Group Therapy with Couples in Conflict

This article describes a psychoanalytically based time limited model of couples group therapy, using live clinical material to illustrate the process and flow of therapy. Because of the pre-therapy clear agreement regarding number of sessions, it is important that the contract be adhered to by all parties, underscoring issues of reliability regarding commitment and fostering completion. Critical themes such as dependence and independence rapidly become focal issues in treatment. Mirroring, reflecting, confronting, supporting and interpreting are among the treatment techniques utilized. A heterosexual co-therapy team is recommended as the optimal therapeutic pair for group leadership.     

A team approach to practice teaching

The ideas presented in this paper were originally generated in a workshop at an NSPCC conference on Practice Teaching in March 1996. In this article we wish to develop some of these ideas further and explore the idea of a team approach to practice teaching. This is not some radical new notion, but an acknowledgement of the reality of many placements. Although a student will be allocated a practice teacher (and possibly an off-site practice teacher) he or she will not function by themselves but will be part of an organisation. It is this wider structure and its effects on the student that we feel needs closer scrutiny. Firstly, we believe that not enough attention has been given to the power that organisations can have over an individual (particularly one whose stay is only short-term and possibly part-time). Secondly, we believe students can obtain benefits from the wealth of knowledge existing in any team, drawing on the skills and expertise of all team members. When team learning works well we feel that it provides benefits for all parties - the student, the practice teacher, the team and service users.     

Approaching ADHD as a chronic condition: implications for long-term adherence

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common chronic conditions of childhood. Although evidence-based treatments for ADHD, including stimulant medication and behavior modification, have long been established, and guidelines for care of ADHD in primary care settings have been developed, adherence to long-term therapy is poor among youth with ADHD. This article proposes use of the Chronic Care Model for Child Health, the purpose of which is to develop informed, activated patients who will interact with a prepared, proactive health care team. Six "pillars" make up the model: decision support, delivery system design, clinical information systems, family and self-management support, community resources and policies, and health care organizations. Each of these is discussed, and an individual example is described. Adopting the Chronic Care Model for Child Health has the potential to improve the quality of care for ADHD.     

Therapeutic Alliance; A View Constructed by a Family Therapy Team

Therapeutic Alliance is a construct which may have value for a family therapy team and influence its day to day practice. This paper discusses whether family therapeutic alliance can be observed, described and measured, and gives an account of the development of the Family Therapeutic Alliance Scale (FTAS) by a brief strategic family therapy team. Our focus is on the use of statistical technique as a means of clarifying the team's construct of therapeutic alliance, informing the team process without being the final arbiter in development of the scale. The second stage outlines the investigation of the usefulness of the construct with a wider group of family therapists. In individual psychotherapies measures of therapeutic alliance have been shown to predict outcome. Our early work suggests this is also true for family therapies and the FTAS may be a predictor for outcome in family work.     

Caste,socio-economic status and fertility -- a study of proximate determinants of fertility in village Riwasa

The intermediary variables of ritual stratification, i.e., caste, and secular stratification, i.e., socioeconomic status, were examined to explain fertility in a survey of 140 fertile women in Riwasa village, Bhiwani District, Haryana state, India, in 1981. The subjects interviewed were equally divided among 17 castes on the basis of untouchability. The intermediary variables evaluated were caste-consciousness, modernization, conformity to family ethical codes and husband-wife communication. The fertility indices were live births, living children, expected additional births and ideal family size. Results were expressed in percentages. Results of the survey confirmed previous findings that fertility was inversely related to caste and socioeconomic status. These associations were explained here, however, by the behavior of the intermediary variables. Fertility was inversely related to level of modernization and to husband-wife communication. Although caste-consciousness and conformity to family ethical codes were directly related to fertility, even among the higher castes. There were no differences in this study population between high and middle socioeconomic class, probably because the high socioeconomic group in this village resembled middle class in typical urban settings.     

EMPIRICAL VALUES AND THE CULTURE OF FAMILY THERAPY*

The research-clinical practice connection is weak in family therapy. Some have argued, in an inordinate ideological and political tone, that traditional research methods are inappropriate for family therapy. This position mischaracterizes modern day clinical researchers and research. In presenting 10 key dimensions of the research-clinical practice issue in family therapy, this paper addresses some of these misrepresentations. If research and practice are to interact more productively, a major commitment, the scope and implications of which have not yet been realized, will need to be made. Actualizing the research-practice link is a training problem and a fundamental professional issue. Progress in this realm would change the particulars of clinical practice as we know it. These processes will involve nothing less than remaking the culture of family therapy.