Developments in Family Psychiatry in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Family Psychiatry began at the Ipswich Hospital, in 1949, mainly as a reaction to the then prevailing practice of child psychiatry. The family became the unit not only of theoretical formulations, but also of clinical psychiatric practice. Family psychopathology is understood in terms of real experience; family diagnosis is arrived at by taking into account the total dysfunctioning of the family, and family therapy, a part of Family Psychiatry, is applied with the aim of benefiting the family as a whole. Developments in the inpatient field have followed. The efforts of a number of British workers have been directed to the problem of schizophrenia and the family.