| Abstract: | In this article the author demonstrates how concepts derived from General Systems Theory can be used to understand and treat families living in impoverished, isolated rural communities in the South. The very nature of the communities described in this paper requires the therapist to modify, sometimes radically, his/her approach to treatment and forces the clinical practitioner to think of intervention in terms of the larger rural community of which the identified patient families are only subcomponents. Working in such communities makes one realize that interventions frequently will have to be directed at the community system as a whole if community rules are to be modified and second-order change is to be brought about. If the therapist treats only those families and groups which have been identified as deviant by the community, he/she runs the risk of becoming one whose main function is to preserve the community's homeostatic balance. Guidelines for gaining admittance into the community and for bringing about changes are discussed in a case example. |
