ANZJFT Volume 26 Number 3
September 2005Contents
Abstracts & Sample Articles
In Brief: Coming Events, Jottings and Announcements
View article. [PDF format - 62KB]Editorial: Family Therapy's Extended Family
by Maureen CragoView article. [PDF format - 64KB]
The Challenges of Recovery [Letter from Argentina]
by Lia Bikel and Eduardo H. CazabatView article. [PDF format - 70KB]
The Ethics of Paradox: Cybernetic and Postmodern Perspectives
by Joel CullinView article. [PDF format - 167KB]
The evolution of family therapy theory has led us to a point where non-direct interventions are considered ethically dubious, to say the least. This paper provides an overview of some of what the author considers to be the pertinent epistemological and practice issues arising from this evolutionary position. In the process, an effort is made to address confused thinking about cybernetics and postmodernism, and an argument is presented suggesting that the metaphors of first-order cybernetics have continued relevance for family therapy practice.
Psychoanalytic Ideas and Systemic Family Therapy: Revisiting the Question 'Why Bother?'
by Carmel FlaskasView article. [PDF format - 144KB]
Despite a history of ambivalence, systemic family therapy has shown signs of a re-engagement with psychoanalytic ideas over the past fifteen years. This paper revisits the question: why bother with psychoanalytic ideas in family therapy? A brief description of work with a family is used to prompt the theory discussion, which identifies and discusses particular ideas from psychoanalysis that are potentially very useful for everyday family therapy practice. These ideas are: the unconscious and unconscious communication; the concepts of transference, countertransference and projective identification, used for understanding particular kinds of experiences in the therapeutic relationship; attachment theory, particularly if allied with the recent research on the transforming potential of coherent narratives; and ideas about emotional containment and the capacity to think. Reflection on the initial therapy example finds the value in practice of these psychoanalytic ideas. The paper concludes with a discussion of the current debate about how the use of psychoanalytic ideas in the systemic context of family therapy can, or should, be framed. Don Meadows replies in 'Worth the Bother: A Response to Carmel Flaskas'.
Worth the Bother: A Response to Carmel Flaskas
by Don MeadowsView article. [PDF format - 89KB]
Sex Therapy: Historical Evolution, Current Practice. Part I [Education Update]
by Raie GoodwachView article. [PDF format - 174KB]
This is the first of a two part series, and provides a contextual history of major trends in sex therapy, notably the psychoanalytic, behavioural and medical models, as well as detailing the family therapy contribution to the field. Part 2 will present the outline of a first interview, and use it to demonstrate a systemic model which explores the inter-relationship between the symptom, the presenting person(s), the 'sexual' as part of the relationship, the biological, the broader cultural view of sexuality - and the therapist's framework and thinking. Case studies are used as illustration.
Giving Voice to the Search for Meaning: An Interview with Ruth Schmidt Neven
by Anna McDowallView article. [PDF format - 803KB]
Ruth Schmidt Neven is a child and adult psychotherapist who trained at the Tavistock Institute in England. She worked in the UK for over twenty years in child and family mental health services of the NHS. During this time, she was responsible for setting up Exploring Parenthood, an organisation which focused on parenting issues. Since migrating to Australia in 1989, Ruth has remained committed to promoting knowledge and understanding about child and family development in the broader community through her clinical practice, training courses and writing. She is currently the director of the Centre for Child and Family Development in Melbourne.
Memory Healing Processes and Community Intervention in Grief Work in Africa
by Augustine NwoyeView article. [PDF format - 137KB]
Western literatures on bereavement acknowledge the tendency to pathological grieving among some bereaved persons. The phenomenon of pathological mourning, however, is rare in Africa because of the presence of coherent and transformative rituals of mourning. The paper argues that such rituals and performative experiences heal by addressing four principal aspects of the memory of the bereaved individual. The paper elaborates on the content, process, symbolic meanings and clinical potency of these rituals.
Therapy Against the Odds: A Learning Experience
by Katie SplevinsView article. [PDF format - 62KB]
A Nazi in the Family Closet? [Letter from Germany]
by Hans SchindlerView article. [PDF format - 140KB]
Many family therapy trainees report that during the preparation of their family reconstruction, parents and grandparents don't like to give a detailed account of the Nazi era, but evade the subject. The trainees themselves have problems mentioning those subjects, because they don't know what they should ask. The silence and concealment, the avoidance of asking and the evasion of research have a long tradition in German families since 1945.
Reviews: Independant comment on audio-visual and print materials
View article. [PDF format - 109KB]Training Programs in Family Therapy in Australia
View article. [PDF format - 64KB]