| Summary: | "The use of relatives in the care of psychiatric patients is the outgrowth of a new theory which considers the family, not the individual, as the unit or organism in which illness occurs. It is based on the existence of balancing and opposing psychopathologies within a family. For example, there may be obsessive-compulsive neurosis in certain members, and impulsive acting-out with character disturbances in other members of the same family. Only through melioration of the different psychopathologies in the family can mental health be achieved for each individual member. The family, therefore, must be viewed as the unit of treatment. Because relatives take part in treatment, the social organization and personality growth of the patient takes place in the familiar atmosphere of family experience. As a participant in today's development of psychiatry, I have reported in this book my own results with family therapy in various types of mental illness. This book should be of interest to all persons concerned with the treatment of psychiatric patients in both private and public mental and general hospitals. This includes nurses, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. Those who teach child and family growth and development, psychopathology, and psychotherapy will find a new approach to mental illness, an approach which is in keeping with modern trends in social psychiatry and cultural anthropology. Through family therapy many potential illnesses are prevented"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).
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