EP90 Invited Address 02a - The Political Landscape of Family Therapy - Salvador Minuchin, MD

Description:

The theoretical concepts of family therapy have evolved since their beginnings in the 1950s. If we look at the political landscape of the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s, we see that family therapy parallels the political ethos of the time.

Educational Objectives:

1. To give psychotherapy a space in social context
2. To highlight the ideological dangers of decontexted theory 

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*

Outline:

Introduction of Faculty Members and Minuchin’s Background

• Faculty introduced: Salvador Minuchin, Mara Selvini Palazzoli, Carl Whitaker, Dr. Watzlawick

• Minuchin's background: medical degree from Argentina (1947), director of Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Clinical Professor at University of Pennsylvania

• Founder of Structural Family Therapy; authored/co-authored several key texts including Institutionalizing Madness (1989)

Storytelling in Family Therapy and the Constructivist Movement

• Opens with story about Milton Erickson and a pillow reading “God created man”

• Emphasizes storytelling’s power in therapy and its historical role in the field

• Cites Lynn Hoffman’s paper on cybernetics and constructivism in family therapy

• Describes evolution of systemic therapy: strategic → informational → constructivist

• Notes shift away from objectivity toward acknowledgment of subjectivity in therapy

Theoretical Polemics and Objectivity in Therapy

• Critiques current debates over objectivity and the therapist's role as expert

• Frames systemic family therapy history alongside psychodynamic and Rogerian traditions

• Describes a new wave of therapists working with welfare families, sensitive to issues of social control

• These therapists emphasize in-home work, intensive time commitment, and time-limited intervention

Challenges and Realities of Working with Poor Families

• Describes institutional disempowerment of poor families and the clinical implications

• Family-based services operate politically and fiscally on the margins, often lobbying for resources

• Contrasts traditional family therapy's middle-class assumptions with models rooted in poverty contexts

• Emphasizes how social, institutional, and political forces shape therapy delivery and impact

Historical Context and Evolution of Family Therapy

• Reflects on optimism and goal-directed techniques of the 1960s systemic movement

• Notes limitations of therapeutic neutrality and bracketing in systemic models

• Describes cultural repression in post-war Europe and its influence on the Milan School’s neutrality

• Contrasts past therapeutic optimism with present-day materialism and disempowerment

Case Study: Marion and Her Children

• Marion, mother of four including a son with cerebral palsy, has children removed due to a pediatrician’s report

• Describes system failures: no warning, no information on children’s whereabouts, bureaucratic demands for reunification

• Highlights need to understand institutional forces and legal structures affecting poor families

Constructivist Therapy and Its Limitations

• Critiques constructivism for overemphasis on language and stories at the expense of material realities

• Warns against creating new orthodoxy that strips therapy of human and social complexity

• Calls for integration of multiple approaches: structural, strategic, experiential, feminist

• Advocates for a compassionate, politically-informed, and committed family therapy practice

Discussion and Responses

• Mara Selvini Palazzoli highlights socio-political influences on family therapy history

• Discusses Milan School’s paradox strategies and engagement with constructivism

• Emphasizes need for therapist knowledge, commitment, and awareness of institutional power

• Audience Q&A addresses power, culture, and working with families affected by social control systems